Adjacent Words

Bore definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

BORE, v.t. [L. foro and perforo, to bore, to perforate; Gr. to pierce or transfix; also, to pass over, in which sense it coincides with ferry; L. veru, from thrusting or piercing, coincide in elements with this root.
1. To perforate or penetrate a solid body and make a round hole by turning an auger, gimlet, or other instrument. Hence, to make hollow;; to form a round hole; as,to bore a cannon.
2. To eat out or make a hollow by gnawing or corroding, as a worm.
3. To penetrate or break through by turning or labor; as, to bore through a crowd.
BORE, v.i. To be pierced or penetrated by an instrument that turns; as, this timber does not bore well or is hard to bore.
1. To pierce or enter by boring; as, an auger bores well.
2. To push forward toward a certain point.
Boring to the west.
3. With horsemen, a horse bores, when he carries his nose to the ground.
4. In a transitive or intransitive sense, to pierce the earth with scooping irons, which, when drawn out, bring with them samples of the different stratums, through which they pass. This is a method of discovering veins of ore and coal without opening a mine.
BORE, n. The hole made by boring. Hence, the cavity or hollow of a gun, cannon, pistol or other fire-arm; the caliber; whether formed by boring or not.
1. Any instrument for making holes by boring or turning, as an auger, gimlet or wimble.
BORE, n. A tide, swelling above another tide.
A sudden influx of the tide into a river or narrow strait.
BORE, pret. of bear. [See Bear.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a person who evokes boredom [syn: bore, dullard]
2: a high wave (often dangerous) caused by tidal flow (as by colliding tidal currents or in a narrow estuary) [syn: tidal bore, bore, eagre, aegir, eager]
3: diameter of a tube or gun barrel [syn: bore, gauge, caliber, calibre]
4: a hole or passage made by a drill; usually made for exploratory purposes [syn: bore, bore-hole, drill hole] v
1: cause to be bored [syn: bore, tire] [ant: interest]
2: make a hole, especially with a pointed power or hand tool; "don't drill here, there's a gas pipe"; "drill a hole into the wall"; "drill for oil"; "carpenter bees are boring holes into the wall" [syn: bore, drill]

Merriam Webster's

I. verb (bored; boring) Etymology: Middle English, from Old English borian; akin to Old High German bor?n to bore, Latin forare to bore, ferire to strike Date: before 12th century transitive verb 1. to pierce with a turning or twisting movement of a tool 2. to make (as a cylindrical hole) by boring or digging away material <bored a tunnel> intransitive verb 1. a. to make a hole by or as if by boring b. to sink a mine shaft or well 2. to make one's way steadily especially against resistance <we bored through the jostling crowd> II. noun Date: 14th century 1. a. a usually cylindrical hole made by or as if by boring b. chiefly Australian & New Zealand a borehole drilled especially to make an artesian well 2. a. the long usually cylindrical hollow part of something (as a tube or gun barrel) b. the inner surface of a hollow cylindrical object 3. the size of a bore: as a. the interior diameter of a gun barrel; especially chiefly British gauge 1a(2) b. the diameter of an engine cylinder III. past of bear IV. noun Etymology: Middle English *bore wave, from Old Norse b?ra Date: 1601 a tidal flood with a high abrupt front V. noun Etymology: origin unknown Date: 1766 one that causes boredom: as a. a tiresome person b. something that is devoid of interest VI. transitive verb (bored; boring) Date: 1768 to cause to feel boredom

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. v. & n. --v. 1 tr. make a hole in, esp. with a revolving tool. 2 tr. hollow out (a tube etc.). 3 tr. a make (a hole) by boring or excavation. b make (one's way) through a crowd etc. 4 intr. (of an athlete, racehorse, etc.) push another competitor out of the way. 5 intr. drill a well (for oil etc.). --n. 1 the hollow of a firearm barrel or of a cylinder in an internal-combustion engine. 2 the diameter of this; the calibre. 3 = BOREHOLE. Etymology: OE borian f. Gmc 2. n. & v. --n. a tiresome or dull person or thing. --v.tr. weary by tedious talk or dullness. Phrases and idioms: bore a person to tears weary (a person) in the extreme. Etymology: 18th c.: orig. unkn. 3. n. a high tidal wave rushing up a narrow estuary. Also called EAGRE. Etymology: ME, perh. f. ON bára wave 4. past of BEAR(1).

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Bear Bear (b[^a]r), v. t. [imp. Bore (b[=o]r) (formerly Bare (b[^a]r)); p. p. Born (b[^o]rn), Borne (b[=o]r); p. pr. & vb. n. Bearing.] [OE. beren, AS. beran, beoran, to bear, carry, produce; akin to D. baren to bring forth, G. geb["a]ren, Goth. ba['i]ran to bear or carry, Icel. bera, Sw. b["a]ra, Dan. b[ae]re, OHG. beran, peran, L. ferre to bear, carry, produce, Gr. fe`rein, OSlav brati to take, carry, OIr. berim I bear, Skr. bh[.r] to bear. [root]92. Cf. Fertile.] 1. To support or sustain; to hold up. 2. To support and remove or carry; to convey. I 'll bear your logs the while. --Shak. 3. To conduct; to bring; -- said of persons. [Obs.] Bear them to my house. --Shak. 4. To possess and use, as power; to exercise. Every man should bear rule in his own house. --Esther i. 22. 5. To sustain; to have on (written or inscribed, or as a mark), as, the tablet bears this inscription. 6. To possess or carry, as a mark of authority or distinction; to wear; as, to bear a sword, badge, or name. 7. To possess mentally; to carry or hold in the mind; to entertain; to harbor --Dryden. The ancient grudge I bear him. --Shak. 8. To endure; to tolerate; to undergo; to suffer. Should such a man, too fond to rule alone, Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne. --Pope. I cannot bear The murmur of this lake to hear. --Shelley. My punishment is greater than I can bear. --Gen. iv. 13. 9. To gain or win. [Obs.] Some think to bear it by speaking a great word. --Bacon. She was . . . found not guilty, through bearing of friends and bribing of the judge. --Latimer. 10. To sustain, or be answerable for, as blame, expense, responsibility, etc. He shall bear their iniquities. --Is. liii. 11. Somewhat that will bear your charges. --Dryden. 11. To render or give; to bring forward. ``Your testimony bear'' --Dryden. 12. To carry on, or maintain; to have. ``The credit of bearing a part in the conversation.'' --Locke. 13. To admit or be capable of; that is, to suffer or sustain without violence, injury, or change. In all criminal cases the most favorable interpretation should be put on words that they can possibly bear. --Swift. 14. To manage, wield, or direct. ``Thus must thou thy body bear.'' --Shak. Hence: To behave; to conduct. Hath he borne himself penitently in prison ? --Shak. 15. To afford; to be to; to supply with. His faithful dog shall bear him company. --Pope. 16. To bring forth or produce; to yield; as, to bear apples; to bear children; to bear interest. Here dwelt the man divine whom Samos bore. --Dryden. Note: In the passive form of this verb, the best modern usage restricts the past participle born to the sense of brought forth, while borne is used in the other senses of the word. In the active form, borne alone is used as the past participle. To bear down. (a) To force into a lower place; to carry down; to depress or sink. ``His nose, . . . large as were the others, bore them down into insignificance.'' --Marryat. (b) To overthrow or crush by force; as, to bear down an enemy. To bear a hand. (a) To help; to give assistance. (b) (Naut.) To make haste; to be quick. To bear in hand, to keep (one) up in expectation, usually by promises never to be realized; to amuse by false pretenses; to delude. [Obs.] ``How you were borne in hand, how crossed.'' --Shak. To bear in mind, to remember. To bear off. (a) To restrain; to keep from approach. (b) (Naut.) To remove to a distance; to keep clear from rubbing against anything; as, to bear off a blow; to bear off a boat. (c) To gain; to carry off, as a prize. To bear one hard, to owe one a grudge. [Obs.] ``C[ae]sar doth bear me hard.'' --Shak. To bear out. (a) To maintain and support to the end; to defend to the last. ``Company only can bear a man out in an ill thing.'' --South. (b) To corroborate; to confirm. To bear up, to support; to keep from falling or sinking. ``Religious hope bears up the mind under sufferings.'' --Addison. Syn: To uphold; sustain; maintain; support; undergo; suffer; endure; tolerate; carry; convey; transport; waft.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Bore Bore (b[=o]r), n. 1. A hole made by boring; a perforation. 2. The internal cylindrical cavity of a gun, cannon, pistol, or other firearm, or of a pipe or tube. The bores of wind instruments. --Bacon. Love's counselor should fill the bores of hearing. --Shak. 3. The size of a hole; the interior diameter of a tube or gun barrel; the caliber. 4. A tool for making a hole by boring, as an auger. 5. Caliber; importance. [Obs.] Yet are they much too light for the bore of the matter. --Shak. 6. A person or thing that wearies by prolixity or dullness; a tiresome person or affair; any person or thing which causes ennui. It is as great a bore as to hear a poet read his own verses. --Hawthorne.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Bore Bore, v. i. 1. To make a hole or perforation with, or as with, a boring instrument; to cut a circular hole by the rotary motion of a tool; as, to bore for water or oil (i. e., to sink a well by boring for water or oil); to bore with a gimlet; to bore into a tree (as insects). 2. To be pierced or penetrated by an instrument that cuts as it turns; as, this timber does not bore well, or is hard to bore. 3. To push forward in a certain direction with laborious effort. They take their flight . . . boring to the west. --Dryden.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Bore Bore, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bored; p. pr. & vb. n. Boring.] [OE. borien, AS. borian; akin to Icel. bora, Dan. bore, D. boren, OHG. por?n, G. bohren, L. forare, Gr. ? to plow, Zend bar. [root]91.] 1. To perforate or penetrate, as a solid body, by turning an auger, gimlet, drill, or other instrument; to make a round hole in or through; to pierce; as, to bore a plank. I'll believe as soon this whole earth may be bored. --Shak. 2. To form or enlarge by means of a boring instrument or apparatus; as, to bore a steam cylinder or a gun barrel; to bore a hole. Short but very powerful jaws, by means whereof the insect can bore, as with a centerbit, a cylindrical passage through the most solid wood. --T. W. Harris. 3. To make (a passage) by laborious effort, as in boring; as, to bore one's way through a crowd; to force a narrow and difficult passage through. ``What bustling crowds I bored.'' --Gay. 4. To weary by tedious iteration or by dullness; to tire; to trouble; to vex; to annoy; to pester. He bores me with some trick. --Shak. Used to come and bore me at rare intervals. --Carlyle. 5. To befool; to trick. [Obs.] I am abused, betrayed; I am laughed at, scorned, Baffled and bored, it seems. --Beau. & Fl.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Bore Bore, n. [Icel. b[=a]ra wave: cf. G. empor upwards, OHG. bor height, burren to lift, perh. allied to AS. beran, E. 1st bear. [root]92.] (Physical Geog.) (a) A tidal flood which regularly or occasionally rushes into certain rivers of peculiar configuration or location, in one or more waves which present a very abrupt front of considerable height, dangerous to shipping, as at the mouth of the Amazon, in South America, the Hoogly and Indus, in India, and the Tsien-tang, in China. (b) Less properly, a very high and rapid tidal flow, when not so abrupt, such as occurs at the Bay of Fundy and in the British Channel.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Bore Bore, imp. of 1st & 2d Bear.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(bores, boring, bored) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. If someone or something bores you, you find them dull and uninteresting. Dickie bored him all through the meal with stories of the Navy... Life in the country bores me. VERB: V n with n, V n 2. If someone or something bores you to tears, bores you to death, or bores you stiff, they bore you very much indeed. (INFORMAL) ...a handsome engineer who bored me to tears with his tales of motorway maintenance... PHRASE: V inflects [emphasis] 3. You describe someone as a bore when you think that they talk in a very uninteresting way. There is every reason why I shouldn't enjoy his company–he's a bore and a fool. N-COUNT 4. You can describe a situation as a bore when you find it annoying. It's a bore to be sick, and the novelty of lying in bed all day wears off quickly. = drag N-SING: a N 5. If you bore a hole in something, you make a deep round hole in it using a special tool. Get the special drill bit to bore the correct-size hole for the job. VERB: V n 6. Bore is the past tense of bear. 7. see also bored, boring

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

bor: According to the Book of the Covenant (Ex 20:20-23:33) a slave whom his master had purchased was to be released after six years. Should he choose to remain in his master's service a religious ceremony was necessary to ratify his decision. "Then his master shall bring him unto God" (better than "unto the judges" of the King James Version), "and shall bring him to the door, or unto the doorpost; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl" (Ex 21:6). It is highly improbable that "unto God" means "to a sanctuary"; for there was no special reason for performing this ceremony near the door of a sanctuary. On the other hand the entrance to a private house was a sacred spot. According to primitive thinking near the door dwelt the household gods whose function it was to guard the house and its occupants, e.g. against the entry of disease. It was natural that the ceremony of attaching the slave permanently to the master's household should be performed in the presence of the household gods. "The boring of the ear of slaves was a common practice in antiquity, possibly to symbolize the duty of obedience, as the ear was the organ of hearing" (Bennett). The Deuteronomist (De 15:17) rejects the religious aspect of the ceremony--probably as a relic of Canaanite religion--and looks upon it as a secular and symbolical operation. According to his view, the awl was thrust through the ear of the slave to the door. The slave in question was permanently attached to the household.

T. Lewis

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. v. a. 1. Perforate, pierce, drill. 2. Weary (by tedious repetition), fatigue, tire, tire out, plague, trouble, vex, worry, annoy. II. n. 1. Hole, calibre. 2. Proser, button-holer. 3. Eagre, eger or eygre, great tidal flood.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

A tedious, troublesome man or woman, one who bores the ears of his hearers with an uninteresting tale; a term much in fashion about the years 1780 and 1781.

Moby Thesaurus

acupunctuation, acupuncture, aggravation, annoyance, auger, bad news, be tedious, bedevilment, billow, bite, bore stiff, bore to death, bore to distraction, bore to tears, boring, bother, botheration, bothersomeness, breakers, broach, burrow, buttonhole, buttonholer, caliber, chop, choppiness, chopping sea, comb, comber, countersink, crashing bore, delve, devilment, diameter, difficulty, dig, dig out, dike, dirty water, discompose, discontent, disquiet, dogging, downer, drag, dredge, drill, drill hole, drip, drive, dryasdust, dusty, eagre, empierce, empiercement, ennui, exasperation, excavate, exhaust, fix, fixing, flat tire, frightful bore, furrow, gape, gaup, gawk, glare, gloat, goggle, gore, goring, gouge, gouge out, gravity wave, groove, ground swell, grub, harassment, harrying, headache, heave, heavy sea, heavy swell, hole, hollow out, honeycomb, hounding, humdrum, impale, impalement, jade, lance, lancing, leave unsatisfied, lift, lop, lower, mine, molestation, needle, nuisance, pall, peak, peer, penetrate, penetration, perforate, perforation, persecution, pest, pierce, piercing, pill, pink, popple, prick, pricking, problem, proser, punch, punching, puncture, puncturing, quarry, radius, ream, ream out, riddle, riffle, ripple, rise, roll, roller, rough water, run through, sap, scend, scoop, scoop out, scrabble, scrape, scratch, sea, semidiameter, send, send to sleep, shovel, sink, skewer, skewering, spade, spear, spike, spit, stab, stare, stick, surf, surge, swell, tap, terebration, tidal bore, tidal wave, tide wave, tire, transfix, transfixation, transfixion, transforation, transpierce, trench, trepan, trepanning, trephine, trephining, trial, trouble, trough, tsunami, tunnel, twaddler, undulation, vexation, vexatiousness, water wave, wave, wavelet, wear out, weary, wet blanket, white horses, whitecaps, worriment, worry