bore

¹

[bawr]

verb (used with object)

bored, boring 

1. to weary by dullness or sameness.

   The long speech bored me.

   Synonyms: annoy, tire, fatigue
   Antonyms: enrapture, thrill, amuse

noun

1. a dull, tiresome, or uncongenial person.

   He's such a bore that I'd rather stay home than go out with him.

2. a cause of inconvenience or petty annoyance.

   The job has a lot of repetitive tasks that are a bore to do.

bore

²

[bawr]

verb (used with object)

bored, boring 

1. to pierce (a solid substance) with some rotary cutting instrument.

   Synonyms: drill, perforate

2. to make (a hole) by drilling with such an instrument.

3. to form, make, or construct (a tunnel, mine, well, passage, etc.) by hollowing out, cutting through, or removing a core of material.

   to bore a tunnel through the Alps;

   to bore an oil well 3,000 feet deep.

4. Machinery.,  to enlarge (a hole) to a precise diameter with a cutting tool within the hole, by rotating either the tool or the work.

5. to force (an opening), as through a crowd, by persistent forward thrusting (usually followed by through orinto ); to force or make (a passage).

verb (used without object)

bored, boring 

1. to make a hole in a solid substance with a rotary cutting instrument.

2. Machinery.,  to enlarge a hole to a precise diameter.

3. (of a substance) to admit of being bored.

   Certain types of steel do not bore well.

noun

1. a hole made or enlarged by boring.

2. the inside diameter of a hole, tube, or hollow cylindrical or conical object or device, such as a bushing or bearing, engine cylinder, musical wind instrument, or barrel of a gun.

   Synonyms: caliber

bore

³

[bawr, bohr]

noun

1. an abrupt rise of tidal water moving rapidly inland from the mouth of an estuary.

bore

⁴

[bawr, bohr]

verb

1. simple past tense of bear.

bore

¹

/ bɔː /

verb

1. to produce (a hole) in (a material) by use of a drill, auger, or other cutting tool

2. to increase the diameter of (a hole), as by an internal turning operation on a lathe or similar machine

3. (tr) to produce (a hole in the ground, tunnel, mine shaft, etc) by digging, drilling, cutting, etc

4. informal,  (intr) (of a horse or athlete in a race) to push other competitors, esp in order to try to get them out of the way

noun

1. a hole or tunnel in the ground, esp one drilled in search of minerals, oil, etc

2. 1. a circular hole in a material produced by drilling, turning, or drawing

   2. the diameter of such a hole

3. 1. the hollow part of a tube or cylinder, esp of a gun barrel

   2. the diameter of such a hollow part; calibre

4. an artesian well

bore

²

/ bɔː /

verb

1. (tr) to tire or make weary by being dull, repetitious, or uninteresting

noun

1. a dull, repetitious, or uninteresting person, activity, or state

bore

³

/ bɔː /

noun

1. a high steep-fronted wave moving up a narrow estuary, caused by the tide

bore

⁴

/ bɔː /

verb

1. the past tense of bear 1

bore

1. In fluid mechanics, a jump in the level of moving water, generally propagating in the opposite direction to the current. Strong ocean tides can cause bores to propagate up rivers.

2. 1. The white, shallow portion of a wave after it breaks. The bore carries ocean water onto the beach.

   2. A tidal wave caused by the surge of a flood tide upstream in a narrowing estuary or by colliding tidal currents.

Other Word Forms

• boreable adjective
• borable adjective
• bored adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of bore¹

First recorded in 1760–70; of uncertain origin

Origin of bore²

First recorded before 900; Middle English bor(i)en, Old English borian; cognate with Old High German borōn, German bohren, Old Norse bora, Latin forāre

Origin of bore³

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English bare “a wave, billow,” from Old Norse bāra

Word History and Origins

Origin of bore¹

Old English borian ; related to Old Norse bora , Old High German borōn to bore, Latin forāre to pierce, Greek pharos ploughing, phárunx _pharynx

Origin of bore²

C18: of unknown origin

Origin of bore³

C17: from Old Norse bāra wave, billow

Example Sentences

Hailing from small-town Australia, he became bored with censoring his work for family papers and cartooning about the weather, seeking something bigger to fit his burgeoning punk sensibilities.

From Salon

The patient in the ambulance bore the sole injury in the plague of crashes, but the injuries were minor, officials said.

From Los Angeles Times

I’ve been played songs that were built on an algorithm, and I found them kind of boring.

From Los Angeles Times

By midmorning, the San Fernando Valley sun bore down on the crew as their assignment ended.

From Los Angeles Times

Railway infrastructure was damaged near the capital, Kyiv, but it was central and south-eastern Ukraine that bore the brunt of the latest strikes.

From BBC

Related Words

• annoy 
• bother 
• exhaust 
• fatigue 
• irk 
• irritate 
• jade 
• tire 
• worry