How to Use fear the worst in a Sentence

fear the worst

idiom
  • As the days wore on, Ms. Heimann began to fear the worst.
    New York Times, 1 Jan. 2021
  • Meanwhile, renters like Peñate fear the worst may be far from over.
    Matthew Brown, USA TODAY, 24 June 2021
  • Italy's soccer-mad fans might be starting to fear the worst.
    Steve Douglas, ajc, 15 Nov. 2021
  • As the virus spreads from large cities to smaller towns and villages, many citizens fear the worst is yet to come.
    Julia Musto, Fox News, 8 Sep. 2020
  • The buzzing cellphone messages caused some residents to fear the worst.
    Washington Post, 20 Apr. 2021
  • The buzzing cellphone messages led some residents to fear the worst.
    Washington Post, 21 Apr. 2021
  • When a young single mother does not show up for work on Halloween, those around her fear the worst.
    Olivia McCormack, Washington Post, 14 Oct. 2022
  • The war was only hours old, but the townspeople of Ivankiv already had every reason to fear the worst.
    Laura Kingstaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 10 May 2022
  • But even as earnings are forecast to slump to their lowest level in three years, investors fear the worst is yet to come.
    Nicole Goodkind, CNN, 19 Apr. 2023
  • The episode ended with Jimmy being lifted off on a stretcher, causing fans to fear the worst.
    Amanda Garrity, Good Housekeeping, 6 July 2020
  • Sales data don’t offer much of an answer these days, leaving investors to fear the worst.
    Stephen Wilmot, WSJ, 4 Apr. 2022
  • With cold weather moving in and more events shifting inside, health experts fear the worst of the pandemic is yet to come.
    Sarah Lynch Baldwin, CBS News, 31 Oct. 2020
  • Jogging out toward left field, where Corbin Carroll was on the ground, hurt on the warning track, Lovullo couldn’t help but fear the worst on Saturday night.
    Nick Piecoro, The Arizona Republic, 1 May 2023
  • Many companies and leaders fear the worst when the topic of sabbaticals comes up.
    Nick Leighton, Forbes, 1 June 2022
  • Many Americans fear the worst, despite the positive signs, which include a strong job market.
    Julian Zelizer, CNN, 13 Nov. 2021
  • Zoom calls are constantly interrupted by air-raid sirens, and if someone is AFK for too long, Grygorovych can’t help but fear the worst.
    WIRED, 18 Jan. 2023
  • Those advising against the use of period trackers appear to fear the worst: dragnet-style searches for anyone who was pregnant and then ceased to be.
    New York Times, 30 June 2022
  • With studio releases pulling out and with cinemas as a business and an audience still heavily reliant on them, many fear the worst in the long-term.
    Christopher Vourlias, Variety, 18 May 2022
  • When the militiamen abducted Abdul Ali al-Falus and his four sons last year, their family had every reason to fear the worst.
    Sudarsan Raghavan, Anchorage Daily News, 9 May 2021
  • With hospitals strained statewide, health care workers fear the worst is yet to come as cases swell since those who test positive may take weeks to get sick enough for hospitalization.
    Aubrey Wieber, Anchorage Daily News, 25 Nov. 2020
  • By contrast, when enterprises and families fear the worst and hunker down, a rise in borrowing costs can pummel spending and send the economy into a tailspin.
    Shawn Tully, Fortune, 5 Oct. 2022
  • The possible range of restrictions—on women’s dress, on the range of jobs that will be open to women and on the extent to which gender segregation will be imposed—are causing many inside and outside Afghanistan to fear the worst for women’s freedoms.
    Margherita Stancati, WSJ, 20 Aug. 2021
  • Interpretations of Islamic law vary widely, and the possible range of restrictions are causing many inside and outside Afghanistan to fear the worst for women’s freedoms.
    Jessica Donati, WSJ, 18 Aug. 2021
  • Public health experts fear the worst is yet to come as the highly transmissible Omicron variant spreads to communities where health care workers are already straining to handle the surge of patients sickened by Delta.
    New York Times, 22 Dec. 2021
  • But without economic relief, businesses fear the worst—and as Americans travel to visit family during the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, public health officials are deeply concerned that cases will continue to rise.
    Alexandra Ossola, Quartz, 13 Nov. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fear the worst.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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