Outstare

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To gaze at someone or something with greater intensity or for a longer duration than they can maintain eye contact
2. To maintain a fixed and intense gaze that exceeds another person's ability to look away in a confrontation of eye contact
3. To challenge another’s visual attention by holding a steadfast and intense gaze that surpasses their capacity to avert their eyes

Etymology: "Outstare" is a plain compound: the prefix "out-" joined to "stare," meaning to look fixedly at someone. The prefix traces back through Old English "ūt" and Proto-Germanic "ūt" to a much older root meaning "out," the same sense it keeps in "outrun" or "outlast." The sense is competitive: to outstare someone is to hold your gaze longer than they can hold theirs, so "out" marks winning the contest of looking. Stare itself comes from Old English "starian," meaning to gaze fixedly or to stand with a rigid, fixed look, a meaning it has kept while the word has changed little in form. Combining the two gives a verb built from two ordinary English parts, with the prefix doing the work of turning a simple act of looking into a contest.

Synonyms: gaze down, stare down

Antonyms: look away