W: scare quotes are quotation marks used for any other purpose than to identify a direct quotation, such as for emphasis or irony. Although the term's connotation is not necessarily negative, an author who uses the term scare quotes to describe them generally does so disapprovingly. The effect is similar to inserting so-called to modify a word, and in some cases the scare quotes may be omitted without loss.

Suck 3/20/2000 - The Jawbone of a Scare Quote
Scare quotes are the quotation marks found around phrases like "gangsta rap,"... Scare quotes throw a net around the ideas and assertions media culture hasn't absorbed yet ... When newspaper reporters, magazine scribes and novelists need to put themselves next to a recent-vintage euphemism — but still want you-the-reader to know that, although some may refer to it as "maize," we at least know it's corn —