Definition of "scary"

Well, we swarmed along down the river road, just carrying on like wildcats; and to make it more scary the sky was darking up, and the lightning beginning to wink and flitter, and the wind to shiver amongst the leaves.

1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXIX, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […]

“ […] How scary it is to know that everyone I love depends on me! I’m afraid I’ll do something wrong.”

1982, Anne Tyler, chapter 2, in Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant‎, New York: Ivy Books, published 1992, page 70

“Whist! whist!” said Natty, in a low voice, on hearing a slight sound made by Elizabeth, in bending over the side of the canoe, in eager curiosity; “’tis a sceary animal, and it’s a far stroke for a spear. […] ”

1823, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 5, in The Pioneers‎, volume 2, New York: Charles Wiley, the UK edition of the same year has scary (p. 262)], page 77

“She’s cursed,” said the skipper; “speak her fair:I’m scary always to see her shakeHer wicked head, with its wild gray hair,And nose like a hawk, and eyes like a snake.”

1867, John Greenleaf Whittier, The Tent on the Beach, and Other Poems‎, Boston: Ticknor and Fields, The Wreck of Rivermouth, page 25

And let us say to these interests that, until the Buy-It-Made-In-Texas movement co-operates with the farmers, we are going to be a little scary of the snare.

1916, Texas Department of Agriculture, “Bulletin”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), numbers 47-57, page 150

The two brothers stood over the dead rat […] .“Please, Bigger, take ’im out,” Vera begged.“Aw, don’t be so scary,” Buddy said.

1940, Richard Wright, Native Son‎, book 1, London: Jonathan Cape, published 1970, page 10

At 199 centimetres and a hundred kilos going up, he was scary big and he found work as a bouncer and enforcer[.]

2010, Peter Corris, Torn Apart, Allen and Unwin, page 117

[T]he main reason I don't want to give her a GA is she's so scary fat!

2020, S. Clarence Dodge, Beyond Blood: Inside the Mind of an Anesthesiologist‎, Xlibris Corporation