fear for

fear for (someone or something)

To be concerned or worried about someone or something. I just fear for you going out all alone so late at night. The sight of my boys with a ball in the house makes me fear for all of our valuables!
See also: fear
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

fear for someone or something

to be afraid for the safety of someone or something; to worry about someone or something. I fear for Tom. He has gone to a very dangerous place. I don't want to go down that rocky trail. I fear for my car.
See also: fear
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • fear for (someone or something)
  • on sight
  • do something on sight
  • absent (oneself) from (someone or something)
  • absent oneself from
  • a sight
  • be (with)in sight
  • be in/within sight
  • come into sight
  • catch sight of
References in classic literature
I fear for you because you have gained their hatred.
The 2017 survey found that 53 percent of Americans fear pollution of oceans, rivers and streams; about 50 percent fear for the quality of their drinking water; 48 percent fear climate change; and nearly 45 percent fear air pollution.
At work you may fear for your job, especially in today's uncertain economic times.
Love for God in us should be as spontaneous as the fear for Him.
However, it should be noted that memories of pain are reconstructed and heightened over time, and match the existing level of dental fear for most fearful patients.
Then Elijah hits the road out of fear for his life.
Inspired by the claim of some historians that, by the twentieth century, as a result of a long term process fear for the external world was replaced by fears coming from within the individual psyche, the authors suggest that the changes they discuss may "fit into a larger Western transformation in which nineteenth-century confidence yielded to twentieth century Angst even in the cozy confines of the American middle class." [1]
And locking up an angry child in a cupboard would instill nothing but fear for the dark in an otherwise dauntless child.
Fear for strangers or the dark was now mentioned regularly as a typical early childhood experience, which would have consequences in later stages of life, if it was not treated properly.
Along with "recipients of fear" there are "producers of fear," those people and organizations who disseminate fear for whatever reason.