scheuen
German, verb/ˈʃɔɪ̯ən/
scheuen is a German verb meaning “to shy, to balk at (to physically refuse going near a source of fear, especially of animals)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The German Wiktionary defines it as “etwas (häufig aus Angst) vermeiden oder meiden”.
What does scheuen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to shy, to balk at (to physically refuse going near a source of fear, especially of animals)
Das Pferd scheut vor dem Hindernis.
- 2
to avoid, to balk at (an act or situation, especially over a longer time period)
keine Mühe scheuen
- 3
to be afraid of, to shrink from, to shy away from
Wir scheuen uns davor, ihm Unannehmlichkeiten zu bereiten.
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. etwas (häufig aus Angst) vermeiden oder meiden 2. etwas (aus Angst oder anderen Gründen) vermeiden
The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.
Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of scheuen
- scheut present singular third-person
- scheute past
- gescheut participle past
- haben auxiliary
- scheuend participle present
- scheue first-person indicative present
- scheust indicative present second-person
- scheuest second-person singular subjunctive
- scheuet plural second-person subjunctive
- scheuten first-person indicative plural
- scheutest indicative preterite second-person
- scheutet indicative plural preterite
- scheu imperative second-person singular
- habe gescheut first-person indicative multiword-construction
- haben gescheut first-person indicative multiword-construction
- scheue! imperative singular
- scheut! imperative plural
- scheuet! imperative plural
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce scheuen?
- /ˈʃɔɪ̯ən/
- [ˈʃɔɪ̯ən]
- [ʃɔɪ̯n]
Sources: English Wiktionary, German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to scheuen
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is scheuen in German?
scheuen appears 3.0 times per million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).