bore
English
editPronunciation
edit- (General American) IPA(key): /bɔɹ/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /bɔː/
- (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA(key): /bo(ː)ɹ/
- (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA(key): /boə/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
- Homophones: boar, Bohr; boor (pour–poor merger)
Etymology 1
editFrom Middle English boren, from Old English borian (“to pierce”), from Proto-West Germanic *borōn, from Proto-Germanic *burōną.
Compare Danish bore, Norwegian Bokmål bore, Dutch boren, German bohren, Old Norse bora. Cognate with Latin forō (“to bore, to pierce”), Latin feriō (“strike, cut”) and Albanian birë (“hole”). Sense of wearying may come from a figurative use such as "to bore the ears"; compare German drillen.
Verb
editbore (third-person singular simple present bores, present participle boring, simple past and past participle bored)
- (transitive) To inspire boredom in somebody.
- to bore someone to death
- Reading books really bores me; films are much more exciting.
- 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 206:
- He bores me with some trick.
- 1881, Thomas Carlyle, Reminiscences:
- […] used to come and bore me at rare intervals.
- (transitive) To make a hole through something.
- c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
- I'll believe as soon this whole earth may be bored.
- 1950 September, “Network News: Watford Tunnel, L.M.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 641:
- On June 8, 1872, the London & North Western Railway obtained powers to quadruple its main line, and a new tunnel was bored for the up and down slow lines.
- (intransitive) To make a hole with, or as if with, a boring instrument; to cut a circular hole by the rotary motion of a tool.
- to bore for water or oil
- An insect bores into a tree.
- (transitive) To form or enlarge (something) by means of a boring instrument or apparatus.
- to bore a steam cylinder or a gun barrel; to bore a hole
- 1862, Thaddeus William Harris, A Treatise on Some of the Insects Injurious to Vegetation:
- short but very powerful jaws, by means whereof the insect can bore […] a cylindrical passage through the most solid wood
- (transitive) To make (a passage) by laborious effort, as in boring; to force a narrow and difficult passage through.
- to bore one’s way through a crowd
- [1716], [John] Gay, “Book III. Of Walking the Streets by Night.”, in Trivia: Or, The Art of Walking the Streets of London, London: […] Bernard Lintott, […], →OCLC, page 79:
- What bustling crowds I bored.
- (intransitive) To be pierced or penetrated by an instrument that cuts as it turns.
- This timber does not bore well.
- (intransitive) To glare (as if to drill a hole with the eyes).
- Their eyes bore into my back.
- (transitive, sports, slang) To push or drive (a boxer into the ropes, a boat out of its course, etc.).
- 1824, Pierce Egan, Boxiana; Or, Sketches of Ancient and Modern Pugilism, page 600:
- The right hand of Curtis was open too much ; but he nevertheless had the best of the hitting in this round, till Inglis bored him down, out of the ropes.
- 1885, Tresham Gilbey, Baily's Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, volume 43, page 107:
- Hanlan, it seems, led at about a mile, when Beach's steamer bored him, and to avoid the danger of being swamped, he put on a violent spurt and drew well clear of Beach, getting some lengths lead.
- (intransitive) To push forward in a certain direction with laborious effort.
- 1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
- They take their flight […] boring to the west.
- (obsolete) To fool; to trick.
Synonyms
edit- (make a hole through something): see also Thesaurus:make a hole
Antonyms
editDerived terms
editRelated terms
editTranslations
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Noun
editbore (plural bores)
- A hole drilled or milled through something, or (by extension) its diameter.
- the bore of a cannon
- 1631, Francis [Bacon], “II. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC, page 53:
- the bores of wind-instruments
- The tunnel inside of a gun's barrel through which the bullet travels when fired, or (by extension) its diameter.
- A tool, such as an auger, for making a hole by boring.
- A capped well drilled to tap artesian water.
- The place where such a well exists.
- One who inspires boredom or lack of interest; an uninteresting person.
- My neighbour is such a bore when he talks about his coin collection.
- Something dull or uninteresting.
- What a bore that movie was! There was no action, and the dialogue was totally uncreative.
- 1871, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Passages from the French and Italian Notebooks:
- It is as great a bore as to hear a poet read his own verses.
- Calibre; importance.
- c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vi]:
- Yet are they much too light for the bore of the matter.
Synonyms
edit- See also Thesaurus:bore
Derived terms
edit- artesian bore
- backbore
- Boraga
- bore draw, bore-draw
- borefest
- borefield
- boregasm
- borehole
- boreism
- bore lake
- boreless
- bore needle
- boreout
- borescope
- boresight, bore sight
- boresighting
- boresome
- bore water
- borewell
- chokebore
- counterbore
- crashing bore
- cross bore
- drawbore
- full bore, full-bore
- less is a bore
- microbore
- nanobore
- overbore
- sealbore
- small-bore
- smoothbore
- throughbore
- wellbore
- windbore
Translations
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Etymology 2
editFrom Middle English *bore, bare, a borrowing from Old Norse bára (“billow, wave”), from Proto-Germanic *bērō (“that which bears or carries”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear”). Cognate with Icelandic bára (“billow, wave”), Faroese bára (“billow, wave”). Doublet of bier.
Noun
editbore (plural bores)
- A sudden and rapid flow of tide occurring in certain rivers and estuaries which rolls up as a wave.
- 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 102:
- In another moment a huge wave, like a muddy tidal bore, but almost scaldingly hot, came sweeping round the bend up-stream.
Synonyms
editTranslations
edit
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Etymology 3
editVerb
editbore
- simple past of bear
- (colloquial) past participle of bear
- 1746, Charles Fearne, Minutes of the proceedings of a court-martial, aſſembled […] [1], London, page 159:
- Q. When the Fireſhip appeared to be going down towards the Real, do you think that the Dorſetſhire could have bore down in Time, to have covered and aſſiſted her?
- 1834, Augustus Earle, A Narrative of a Nine Months' Residence in New Zealand in 1827 […] [2], pages 345–346:
- […] by altering their course a very little, and easily have bore down abreast of our settlement, without incurring the smallest risk!
- 2006 February 10, Karl F. Hoffman, Jennifer M. Fitzpatrick, “The Application of DNA Microarrays in the Functional Study of Schisostome/Host Biology”, in W. Evan Secor, Daniel G. Colley, editors, Schistosomiasis, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 101:
- The end of the 20th century and the start of the new millennium have bore witness to a remarkable revolution in the way parasite/host biological interactions can be conceptually designed and experimentally studied.
- (proscribed) simple past of bare
Anagrams
editCornish
editEtymology
editBorrowed from Welsh bore. Cognate with Breton beure, Old Irish báireach and Old Irish bárach, whence i mbáireach and i mbárach (“tomorrow”), modern Irish amáireach (Munster, Connaught) and Irish amárach (Donegal).
Noun
editbore m
Mutation
editCzech
editEtymology 1
editPronunciation
editNoun
editbore
Etymology 2
editPronunciation
editNoun
editbore
References
editAnagrams
editDutch
editPronunciation
editAudio: (file)
Verb
editbore
Anagrams
editFrench
editEtymology
editCoined by Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and Louis Jacques Thénard in 1808, from the same root but independently of English boron.
Pronunciation
editNoun
editbore m (uncountable)
Descendants
edit- → Persian: بور (bor)
Further reading
edit- “bore”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
editMiddle English
editEtymology 1
editA back-formation from boren; reinforced by Old Norse bora.
Alternative forms
editPronunciation
editNoun
editbore (plural bores)
- A bore, hole, puncture or indentation.
- A gap, cavity or piercing.
- (rare, euphemistic) The anus; the asshole.
Descendants
editReferences
edit- “bōre, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-22.
Etymology 2
editVerb
editbore
- Alternative form of boryn
Etymology 3
editNoun
editbore
- Alternative form of bor
Norwegian Bokmål
editEtymology
editVerb
editbore (imperative bor, present tense borer, simple past and past participle bora or boret, present participle borende)
Derived terms
editReferences
edit- “bore” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Norwegian Nynorsk
editVerb
editbore
- past participle of bera
Welsh
editEtymology
editFrom Middle Welsh bore, from Proto-Brythonic *bọreɣ, from Proto-Celtic *bāregos (“morning”). Cognate with Breton beure and Old Irish bárach (whence i mbárach (“tomorrow”), modern Irish amáireach and amárach).
Pronunciation
edit- (North Wales, standard, colloquial) IPA(key): /ˈbɔrɛ/
- (North Wales, colloquial) IPA(key): /ˈbɔra/
- (South Wales) IPA(key): /ˈboːrɛ/, /ˈbɔrɛ/
Audio: (file)
Noun
editbore m (plural boreau)
Derived terms
edit- bore da (“good morning”)
- bore gwyn (“early morning”)
- bore coffi (“coffee morning”)
Related terms
editMutation
edit- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɔː(ɹ)
- Rhymes:English/ɔː(ɹ)/1 syllable
- English terms with homophones
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with collocations
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English intransitive verbs
- en:Sports
- English slang
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms derived from Old Norse
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English doublets
- English non-lemma forms
- English verb forms
- English colloquialisms
- English past participles
- English proscribed terms
- English irregular simple past forms
- Cornish terms borrowed from Welsh
- Cornish terms derived from Welsh
- Cornish lemmas
- Cornish nouns
- Cornish masculine nouns
- kw:Time
- Czech terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Czech/orɛ
- Rhymes:Czech/orɛ/2 syllables
- Czech non-lemma forms
- Czech noun forms
- Rhymes:Czech/oːrɛ
- Dutch terms with audio pronunciation
- Dutch non-lemma forms
- Dutch verb forms
- French terms coined by Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
- French coinages
- French 1-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French uncountable nouns
- French masculine nouns
- fr:Chemical elements
- Middle English back-formations
- Middle English terms derived from Old Norse
- Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- Middle English terms with rare senses
- Middle English euphemisms
- Middle English verbs
- Norwegian Bokmål terms derived from Old Norse
- Norwegian Bokmål lemmas
- Norwegian Bokmål verbs
- Norwegian Nynorsk non-lemma forms
- Norwegian Nynorsk verb forms
- Welsh terms inherited from Middle Welsh
- Welsh terms derived from Middle Welsh
- Welsh terms inherited from Proto-Brythonic
- Welsh terms derived from Proto-Brythonic
- Welsh terms inherited from Proto-Celtic
- Welsh terms derived from Proto-Celtic
- Welsh terms with IPA pronunciation
- Welsh terms with audio pronunciation
- Welsh lemmas
- Welsh nouns
- Welsh countable nouns
- Welsh masculine nouns
- cy:Time