Alexander Schmidt, Shakespeare Lexicon and Quotation Dictionary

Fear (dissyll. in H4A IV, 3, 7) subst. 1) apprehension, dread: Ven. 1153. Sonn. 86, 12. Gentl. II, 7, 68. Ado II, 3, 200. 203 etc. Plur. “--s:” Lucr. 456. Sonn. 107, 1. Compl. 298. Meas. IV, 2, 207. Mids. V, 97. LLL I, 2, 107 etc. With “of:” Gentl. III, 1, 33. Wiv. I, 1, 37. Wiv. I, 1, 37 II, 2, 24. Err. V, 195. Merch. IV, 1, 192 etc. “to give fear to use and liberty,” Meas. I, 4, 62. “put f. to valour,” Ven. 1158 (== make valour timorous). “stand in f.” Meas. II, 3, 34. H6B IV, 2, 67. “all his men upon the foot of f.” H4A V, 5. 20 (== flying). “for f.” Lucr. 610. Err. IV, 2, 56. H6A III, 1, 85. R3 V, 2, 20 etc. for f. of sth.: Tp. II, 2, 116. Gentl. I, 3, 78. H6A I, 4, 48. Caes. V, 1, 105. “for f. lest . . .:” Wiv. III, 5, 104. Mids. III, 2, 385. for f. == lest, that not: and never after ear so barren a land, for f. it yield me still so bad a harvest, Ven. Ded. Mids. III, 2, 385 “receive the money now, for f. you ne'er see chain nor money more,” Err. III, 2, 182. “make it less, for f. I surfeit,” Merch. III, 2, 114. out of f. == a) for or from fear: “you speak it out of f.” H4A IV, 3, 7. b) without f.: “I am out of f. of death,” IV, 1, 135. cf. “this will put them out of f.” Mids. III, 1, 23. Personified: “honest f. doth too too oft betake him to retire,” Lucr. 173. “thy angel becomes a f.” Ant. II, 3, 22 (or == a-fear, i. e. in fear, afeard?).
2) doubt, mistrust: “so I, for f. of trust, forget to say,” Sonn. 23, 5 (see Fear, vb. def. Sonn. 23, 5 b).
3) timidity: “do so near the bottom run by their own f. or sloth,” Tp. II, 1, 228. “it is the baseness of thy f. that makes thee strangle thy propriety,” Tw. V, 149.
4) dreadfulness, formidableness: “the f. of your adventure would counsel you to a more equal enterprise,” As I, 2, 187. “my love and f. glued many friends to thee,” H6C II, 6, 5. “there is no f. in him: let him not die,” Caes. II, 1, 190. “what should be the f.?” Hml. I, 4, 64. “put thyself into a haviour of less f., ere wildness vanquish my staider senses,” Cymb. III, 4, 9.
5) a thing to be dreaded, an object of fear: “imagining some f.” Mids. V, 21. “when we should submit ourselves to an unknown f.” All's II, 3, 6 (or == the fear of something unknown?). “shall we buy treason? and indent with --s, when they have lost and forfeited themselves?” H4A I, 3, 87. “and hold'st it f. or sin to speak a truth,” H4B I, 1, 95. “all these bold --s thou seest with peril I have answered,” IV, 5, 196. “environed with all these hideous --s,” Rom. IV, 3, 50. “we will fetters put upon this f. which now goes too free-footed,” Hml. III, 3, 25.