bore

Use bore in a sentence

A person bores a hole in a cabinet door.

noun

The definition of a bore is something or someone dull and uninteresting.
An example of bore is a person who only ever wants to talk about his pet iguana and nothing else.

verb

To bore is defined as to drill holes in something or make a hole in something.
An example of bore is when you use a drill to make a hole in your cabinet door for the knob to go in.

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"bore." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 16 June 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bore>.

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bore. (n.d.). Retrieved June 16th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bore

bore

transitive verb

bored, bor′ing

to make a hole in or through with a drill or other rotating tool
to make (a hole, tunnel, well, etc.) by or as by drilling
to force (one's way), as through a crowd
to weary by being dull, uninteresting, or monotonous

Origin of bore

Middle English boren from Old English borian, to bore from bor, auger from Indo-European base an unverified form bher-, to cut with a sharp point from source Classical Greek an unverified form pharein, to split, Classical Latin forare, to bore, ferire, to cut, kill

to bore a hole or passage
to be drilled by a tool: soft materials bore easily
to move forward slowly but steadily, as if by boring
to become weary and uninterested

a hole made by or as by boring
1. the hollow part inside a tube, pipe, or cylinder, as of a gun barrel
2. the inside diameter of such a hollow part; gauge; caliber
a tiresome, dull person or thing

Origin of bore

ME < the v.; also < ON bora, a hole

a high wall of moving water caused by a very rapid rise of the tide in shallow, narrow channels

Origin of bore

Middle English bare, a wave from Old Norse bara, a billow from Indo-European an unverified form bhoros from base an unverified form bher- from source bear

pt. of bear

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"bore." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 16 June 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bore>.

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bore. (n.d.). Retrieved June 16th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bore

bore

verb

bored, bor·ing, bores

verb

transitive

To make a hole in or through, with or as if with a drill.
To form (a tunnel, for example) by drilling, digging, or burrowing.

verb

intransitive

To make a hole in or through something with or as if with a drill: “three types of protein that enable the cells to bore in and out of blood vessels” ( Elisabeth Rosenthal )
To proceed or advance steadily or laboriously: a destroyer boring through heavy seas.

noun

A hole or passage made by or as if by use of a drill.
A hollow, usually cylindrical chamber or barrel, as of a firearm.
The interior diameter of a hole, tube, or cylinder.
The caliber of a firearm.
A drilling tool.

Origin of bore

Middle English boren from Old English borian

transitive verb

bored, bor·ing, bores

To make weary by being dull, repetitive, or tedious: The movie bored us.

noun

One that is wearingly dull, repetitive, or tedious.

Origin of bore

Origin unknown

Usage Note: If an activity or experience starts to bore you, are you bored by it, bored of it, or bored with it? All three constructions are common in informal writing and speech, but they enjoy different degrees of acceptance. The most widely approved wordings are bored with and bored by. In our 2012 survey, the sentences I'm getting bored with this lecture series and I'm getting bored by this lecture series were accepted by 93 percent and 88 percent of our Usage Panel, respectively. By contrast, only 24 percent of the Panelists found I'm getting bored of this lecture series at least somewhat acceptable. Why is the bored of construction so widely condemned, when tired of, on which it is presumably modeled, is universally accepted? Probably because tired of was grandfathered into our language, as a relic of the once-common use of of in passive-voice constructions (in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, for instance, Benedict describes himself as being “loved of all ladies”—that is, loved by them). By the time bore came into English in the late 1800s, the use of of to indicate the agent in passive constructions was uncommon. People have kept using such pre-existent familiar phrasings as tired of and frightened of, but otherwise the passive-agent use of of is mostly defunct, so the phrasing bored of is likely to seem like an error to many readers.

noun

See tidal bore .

Origin of bore

Middle English bare wave from Old Norse bāra ; see bher-¹ in Indo-European roots.

verb

Past tense of bear¹

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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"bore." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 16 June 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bore>.

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bore. (n.d.). Retrieved June 16th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bore

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.
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.

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"bore." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 16 June 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bore>.

APA Style

bore. (n.d.). Retrieved June 16th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bore

Verb

(third-person singular simple present bores, present participle boring, simple past and past participle bored)

To make a hole through something.
- Shakespeare
  I'll believe as soon this whole earth may be bored.
(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.
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
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
(intransitive) To be pierced or penetrated by an instrument that cuts as it turns.
This timber does not bore well.
(intransitive) To push forward in a certain direction with laborious effort.
To inspire boredom in somebody.
- Shakespeare
  He bores me with some trick.
- Carlyle
  […] used to come and bore me at rare intervals.
(of a horse) To shoot out the nose or toss it in the air.

Related terms

(to make a hole): borer
(to inspire boredom): bored, boredom, boring

Noun

(plural bores)

A hole drilled or milled through something.
the bore of a cannon
The tunnel inside of a gun's barrel through which the bullet travels when fired.
A tool, such as an auger, for making a hole by boring.
A capped well drilled to tap artesian water. The place where the well exists.
One who inspires boredom or lack of interest.
Something that wearies by prolixity or dullness; a tiresome affair.
Calibre; importance.

Origin

From Old English borian (“to pierce”). Confer Danish bore, Norwegian bore, Dutch boren, German bohren, Old Norse bora. Cognate with Latin forare (“to bore, to pierce”) and Albanian birë (“a hole”). Sense of wearying may come from a figurative use such as "to bore the ears"; confer German drillen.

Noun

(plural bores)

A sudden and rapid flow of tide in certain rivers and estuaries which rolls up as a wave; an eagre.

Origin

Compare Icelandic word for "wave".

Verb

simple past tense of bear

See also: borë

English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.

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MLA Style

"bore." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 16 June 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bore>.

APA Style

bore. (n.d.). Retrieved June 16th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Bore

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