bore
1 Americanverb (used with object)
noun
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a dull, tiresome, or uncongenial person.
He's such a bore that I'd rather stay home than go out with him.
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a cause of inconvenience or petty annoyance.
The job has a lot of repetitive tasks that are a bore to do.
verb (used with object)
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to pierce (a solid substance) with some rotary cutting instrument.
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to make (a hole) by drilling with such an instrument.
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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.
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Machinery. to enlarge (a hole) to a precise diameter with a cutting tool within the hole, by rotating either the tool or the work.
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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)
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to make a hole in a solid substance with a rotary cutting instrument.
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Machinery. to enlarge a hole to a precise diameter.
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(of a substance) to admit of being bored.
Certain types of steel do not bore well.
noun
verb
noun
verb
verb
noun
verb
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to produce (a hole) in (a material) by use of a drill, auger, or other cutting tool
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to increase the diameter of (a hole), as by an internal turning operation on a lathe or similar machine
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(tr) to produce (a hole in the ground, tunnel, mine shaft, etc) by digging, drilling, cutting, etc
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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
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a hole or tunnel in the ground, esp one drilled in search of minerals, oil, etc
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a circular hole in a material produced by drilling, turning, or drawing
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the diameter of such a hole
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the hollow part of a tube or cylinder, esp of a gun barrel
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the diameter of such a hollow part; calibre
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an artesian well
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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.
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The white, shallow portion of a wave after it breaks. The bore carries ocean water onto the beach.
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A tidal wave caused by the surge of a flood tide upstream in a narrowing estuary or by colliding tidal currents.
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Other Word Forms
- borable adjective
- boreable adjective
- bored adjective
Etymology
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
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"When we 'get lost' observing nature, we experience an optimal level of arousal. We are not bored, nor too excited - and that gives us the feeling of 'positive relaxation'," she says.
From BBC
They’re porous defensively and have a boring, predictable offense largely consisting of alternating one-on-one isolations between their “Big Three” most every trip down the court.
From Los Angeles Times
“It sounds like boring contract boilerplate, but it is really about procurement leverage.”
From MarketWatch
She bore and raised their seven children, several of whom followed in her professional footsteps.
The form for the second person on the list bore the initials of a member of her staff, who’d helped the man register — at his naturalization ceremony.
From Salon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
