See Also: Bear Away, Bear Off - Sailing(gambling)
off-bear(dictionary)
Bear CD(money)
Bear Hug(money)
Little Bear(dictionary)
Bear(money)
bear hug(dictionary)
Bear CD(finance)
Bear hug(finance)
sun bear(encyclopedia)

bear(2) (iou)



bear verb1. , BORN. See also YBORN.
[Old English beran = Old Saxon, Old High German beran, Old Norse bera, Gothic bairan, from Germanic from Indo-European base also of Sanskrit bharati, Armenian berem, Greek pherein, Latin ferre.]
I. verb trans. Carry, hold, possess.
Carry (esp. something weighty), transport; bring or take by carrying; fig. have, possess. Now literary or formal. OE.
Chaucer On his bak he bar..Anchises. R. Holinshed This pope Leo..bare but seauen and thirtie yeeres of age. Shakespeare Macbeth I bear a charmed life, which must not yield To one of woman born. E. Waugh Music was borne in from the next room. T. Blackburn I met a child beside a river, Who asked if I would bear him over. K. Laffan We all have our crosses to bear. absol.: Shakespeare Richard II Forgiveness, horse! Why do I rail on thee, Since thou..Wast born to bear?
b. Backgammon. Remove (a piece) from the board at the end of a game. Also foll. by off. M16.
c. Take along as a companion; carry as a consequence. L16-E17.
Carry about with or upon one, esp. visibly; show, display; be known or recognized by (a name, device, etc.); have (a character, reputation, value, etc.) attached to or associated with one. OE.
Shakespeare Winter's Tale If I Had servants true about me that bare eyes To see alike mine honour as their profits. Steele Falshood..shall hereafter bear a blacker Aspect. W. H. Prescott Four beautiful girls, bearing the names of the principal goddesses. A. P. Stanley The staff like that still borne by Arab chiefs. R. Graves Postumus..now bore the rank of regimental commander. S. Brett The old comedian's face bore a smile of unambiguous cynicism.
b. Wear (clothes, ornaments). OE-L16.
refl. Carry or conduct oneself; behave or acquit oneself. ME.
W. S. Churchill Let us..so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years men will still say, 'This was their finest hour'.
Wield, exercise, (power etc.); hold (an office). arch. ME.
Bible (Coverdale): 1 Chronicles 27:6 Sonnes..which bare rule in the house of their fathers. R. Ascham To beare some office in the common wealth.
Entertain, harbour, (a feeling etc. towards someone or something; foll. by indirect obj., for, towards). ME.
Swift The contempt they bear for practical geometry.
Hold or possess (a relation etc.) to something else. ME.
J. Locke Nothing finite bears any proportion to infinite. G. Greene I thought I could believe in some kind of a God that bore no relation to ourselves.
II. Support, sustain, endure.
verb trans. Sustain, support (a weight, strain, or burden). OE.
J. Smeaton Proportionate..to the stress it was likely to bear. fig.: Bible (AV): Genesis 13:6 The land was not able to beare them, that they might dwell together. E. F. Schumacher A large part of the costs of private enterprise has been borne by the public authorities. C. Priest This, alone of all my problems, was one..for which I bore some responsibility.
b. verb trans. Sustain successfully, withstand; admit of, be fit for. E16.
Shakespeare King Lear Thy great employment Will not bear question. J. Ruskin It is not less the boast of some styles that they can bear ornament. J. Raban Only the great families of the Italian Renaissance could seriously bear comparison with the Gulf emirs.
c. verb intrans. Support a load. L17.
G. Washington Attempted to go into the Neck on the Ice, but it wd. not bear.
verb trans. Sustain (something painful); (usu. in neg. or interrog. contexts) endure, tolerate, reconcile oneself to, bring oneself to do something. OE.
Bible (AV): Genesis 4:13 My punishment is greater then I can beare. Smollett With an intrepid heart..he bears the brunt of their whole artillery. R. L. Stevenson Though I could, perhaps, bear to die, I could not bear to look upon my fate as it approached. W. Cather It will take more courage to bear your going than everything that has happened before. N. Coward Sibyl: I don't believe you like mother. Elyot: Like her! I can't bear her. V. S. Pritchett Father could not bear a drip of oil or grease on his own hands.
b. verb intrans. Foll. by with: be patient or put up with, make allowance for. M16.
E. A. Freeman A foreign King had to be borne with. F. King Sometimes he would wonder if she really liked him at all or merely bore with him out of her kindness and tolerance.
a. verb trans. Hold, keep, or lift up; prevent from falling or sinking; hold aloft, hold in position on the top etc. ME.
R. Knolles The Spaniards bearing themselves upon their wealth, were too proud. Bible (AV): Judges 16:29 The two middle pillars..on which it was borne vp. O. Cromwell To bear up our honour at sea. P. Shaffer A small Queen Anne table bearing a fine opaline lamp.
b. verb trans. Keep going (the refrain or a part of a song). arch. LME.
c. verb intrans. Keep one's spirits or courage up; cheer up. M17.
Burke Bearing up against those vicissitudes of fortune. E. B. Browning He bears up, and talks philosophy.
verb trans. Have written, inscribed, etc., on it; (in pass.) be registered or enrolled in a book etc. thus. ME.
Steele A long Letter bearing Date the fourth Instant. John Phillips Coins, bearing the effigy of the Horse. H. Cox All persons borne on the books of Queen's ships in commission.
verb trans. Have or convey the meaning that, purport to be. arch. ME.
Leigh Hunt A portrait..bearing to be the likeness of a certain Erasmus Smith, Esq.
III. verb trans. Produce, give birth to.
Bring forth, produce, yield (fruit, crops, minerals, etc.). OE.
Shakespeare Timon of Athens The oaks bear mast, the briars scarlet hips. Dryden India, black Ebon and white Ivory bears. Anne Stevenson Some beds bear nearly a thousand petunias.
Of a woman or (less commonly) any female mammal: give birth to (a child, children, young); provide (offspring, with the father as indirect obj. or with to). See also BORN pple & adjective. OE.
I. Murdoch Fanny had lived, she had married a distinguished man, she had borne children. New English Bible: Luke 23:29 Happy are the barren, the wombs that never bore a child. Tolkien Aredhel bore to E?l a son in the shadows of Nan Elmoth.
IV. Push, move, apply.
verb trans. Move onward by pressure; force, drive. ME.
Southey Borne backward Talbot turns.
verb trans. Pierce, stab (through). ME-L15.
a. verb intrans. Press or come (up)on or at with (esp. downward) force; exert or transmit mechanical pressure (up)on or against; apply weight, thrust. LME.
L. T. C. Rolt The frame was..moved forward..by horizontal jacks bearing against the newly completed brickwork behind. fig.: Southey While she pray'd the load of care Less heavily bore on her heart.
b. verb trans. Bring down or tend to force down with pressure. L17.
Tennyson The dead weight..bore it down. N. Shute He bore his weight down on the plate with her and the boat lifted sodden sails out of the water.
verb intrans. (Try to) move in a certain direction, esp. deliberately or persistently; diverge, turn; (of a vessel) sail in a given direction. Freq. with adverbs. L16.
Shakespeare Julius Caesar Stand back. Room! Bear back. J. Smeaton The wind being now fair for that port, we bore away for it. H. I. Jenkinson On arriving at the top of the crag, bear a little to the right. Tolkien They turned north and then bore to the north-west.
b. Extend or stretch away in a given direction. E17.
verb intrans. Lie off or be situated in a certain direction from a given point. Cf. BEARING 5. L16.
Shakespeare Taming of Shrew This is Lucentio's house; My father's bears more toward the market-place. P. O'Brian Dawn on the seventeenth instant, the Dry Salvages bearing SSE two leagues.
verb intrans. Foll. by (up)on: exert a practical effect on; have relevance to. L17.
J. Masters We've been able to get a little information bearing..on the accident.
verb intrans. Of a gun: have the intended target in its line of fire, be aimed at the target. L17.
H. Nelson Our after guns ceased to bear. Carlyle Finck had no artillery to bear on Daun's transit through the Pass.
V. Special uses of borne pa. pple & ppl adjective.
As 2nd elem. of a comb.: carried or transported by, as airborne etc. E17.
Phrases, & with adverbs in specialized senses: as much as the traffic will bear: see TRAFFIC noun. bear a bob: see BOB noun1. bear a great stroke: see STROKE noun1. bear a hand assist, help. bear and forbear be patient and tolerant. bear a part (a) take part, share, (in); (b) play a part as actor or actress. bear arms: see ARM noun2. bear a stroke: see STROKE noun1. bear away carry away, win as a prize (bear away the bell: see BELL noun1). bear company accompany (a person). bear date be dated (as specified). bear down (a) push to the ground, overthrow, prevail against; (b) see sense 16b above; (c) exert downward force, press down on; (d) bear down on, bear down upon (Nautical), sail with the wind towards; gen. move rapidly and purposefully towards. bear fruit fig. yield results, be productive. bear great state: see STATE noun. bear hard (a) arch. take badly, resent; (b) bear hard on, bear hard upon, oppress, affect adversely or injuriously. bear heavily (a) = bear hard (a) above; (b) = bear hard (b) above. bear in hand profess falsely; delude, deceive. bear in mind not forget, keep in one's thoughts. bear off (a) repel, ward off; (b) carry off, win as a prize; see also sense 1b above. bear out (a) arch. support, back up, (a person); (b) corroborate, tend to confirm or justify (a statement, a person making a statement). bear over = bear down (a) above. bear state: see STATE noun. bear suspicion: see SUSPICION noun. bear tack: see TACK noun1. bear testimony testify (to). bear the bell: see BELL noun1. bear the stroke: see STROKE noun1. bear up Nautical bring the vessel before the wind, sail to leeward; (see also senses 9a, c above). bear witness testify (to). be borne in upon one be impressed upon one, become one's conviction (that). bring to bear bring into effective operation, begin using, aim (a gun etc.), (bring pressure to bear: see PRESSURE noun). grin and bear it: see GRIN verb2.
? The pple born is now used only in sense 13, and there only in the pass. when not followed by by and the mother. In all other cases borne is usual.