Other forms: daring, dared, dares
To dare is to be brave enough to do something. She did not dare ask. It also means to challenge somebody: I dare you to jump.
The grammar is unusual, because dare can behave as an ordinary verb or as a modal. As a modal it takes no to and no -s: he dare not say, dare I ask. As an ordinary verb it does both: he does not dare to say. Both are correct; the modal use is formal and slightly literary and survives mainly in negatives and questions. How dare you is a fixed exclamation of outrage, and I dare say is a British formula meaning I expect, said with mild resignation.
1verbdareTo be brave enough to do something.
“Nobody dared say a word.”
2verbchallengeTo challenge somebody to do something.
“He dared her to knock on the door.”
3nounriskyA challenge to do something risky.
“He only did it for a dare.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
dare is a way of risking.
Old English durran was a preterite-present verb — a small class that includes can, may, shall and must, all of which behave oddly. Dare is the last of that class still halfway between a modal and an ordinary verb, which is exactly why its grammar has two settings.
Proto-Indo-European
*dʰers-
Proto-Indo-European
*dʰedʰórse — to dare
Proto-Germanic
*durzaną — to dare
Proto-West Germanic
*durʀan
Old English
durran
Middle English
durren
English, today
dare
Built from
From Middle English durren, from Old English durran, from Proto-West Germanic durʀan, from Proto-Germanic durzaną (“to dare”), from Proto-Indo-European dʰedʰórse (“to dare”), reduplicated stative of the root dʰers- (“to be bold, to dare”), an -s- extension of dʰer- (“to hold, support”). 2 Cognate with Low German dören, Dutch durven, German thüren, Sanskrit दधर्ष, but also with Ancient Greek θρασύς, Albanian nder, Lithuanian drįsti, Russian дерза́ть*.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA