bore
pronunciation
How to pronounce bore in British English:
UK [bɔː(r)]
How to pronounce bore in American English:
US [bɔːr]
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- Noun:
- a person who evokes boredom
- a high wave (often dangerous) caused by tidal flow (as by colliding tidal currents or in a narrow estuary)
- diameter of a tube or gun barrel
- a hole or passage made by a drill; usually made for exploratory purposes
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- Verb:
- cause to be bored
- make a hole with a pointed power or hand tool
Word Origin
- bore
- bore: Bore ‘make a hole’ [OE] and bore ‘be tiresome’ [18] are almost certainly two distinct words. The former comes ultimately from an Indo-European base *bhor-, *bhr-, which produced Latin forāre ‘bore’ (whence English foramen ‘small anatomical opening’), Greek phárynx, and prehistoric Germanic *borōn, from which we get bore (and German gets bohren). Bore connoting ‘tiresomeness’ suddenly appears on the scene as a sort of buzzword of the 1760s, from no known source; the explanation most commonly offered for its origin is that it is a figurative application of bore in the sense ‘pierce someone with ennui’, but that is not terribly convincing.In its early noun use it meant what we would now call a ‘fit of boredom’. There is one other, rather rare English word bore – meaning ‘tidal wave in an estuary or river’ [17]. It may have come from Old Norse bára ‘wave’.=> perforate, pharynx
- bore (v.1)
- Old English borian "to bore through, perforate," from bor "auger," from Proto-Germanic *buron (cognates: Old Norse bora, Swedish borra, Old High German boron, Middle Dutch boren, German bohren), from PIE root *bher- (2) "to cut with a sharp point, pierce, bore" (cognates: Greek pharao "I plow," Latin forare "to bore, pierce," Old Church Slavonic barjo "to strike, fight," Albanian brime "hole"). The meaning "diameter of a tube" is first recorded 1570s; hence figurative slang full bore (1936) "at maximum speed," from notion of unchoked carburetor on an engine. Sense of "be tiresome or dull" first attested 1768, a vogue word c. 1780-81 according to Grose (1785); possibly a figurative extension of "to move forward slowly and persistently," as a boring tool does.
- bore (v.2)
- past tense of bear (v.).
- bore (n.)
- thing which causes ennui or annoyance, 1778; of persons by 1812; from bore (v.1). The secret of being a bore is to tell everything. [Voltaire, "Sept Discours en Vers sur l'Homme," 1738]
Example
- 1. So they learn how to bore instead .
- 2. Proust 's sentence structure can impress , but it can also bore .
- 3. That would bore us - interesting , talented people want to do something .
- 4. Sea urchins bore through rock to carve out nooks , where they can protect themselves from waves and predators .
- 5. Theories and conceptual explanations bore themthey want to act energetically to solve the problem .