Bore definition

bôr
bored bores boring
See word origin
Frequency:
To make a hole in or through, with or as if with a drill.
verb
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4
To proceed or advance steadily or laboriously.

A destroyer boring through heavy seas.

verb
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A hole made by or as by boring.
noun
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A high, often dangerous wave caused by the surge of a flood tide upstream in a narrowing estuary or by colliding tidal currents.
noun
5
3
One that is wearingly dull, repetitive, or tedious.
noun
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A hollow, usually cylindrical chamber or barrel, as of a firearm.
noun
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The interior diameter of a hole, tube, or cylinder.
noun
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The caliber of a firearm.
noun
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A drilling tool.
noun
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To make weary by being dull, repetitive, or tedious.

The movie bored us.

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

Soft materials bore easily.

verb
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To move forward slowly but steadily, as if by boring.
verb
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To become weary and uninterested.
verb
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A tiresome, dull person or thing.
noun
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verb
1
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To make a hole in or through something with or as if with a drill.
verb
5
5
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To form (a tunnel, for example) by drilling, digging, or burrowing.
verb
4
4
To bore a hole or passage.
verb
1
1
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.

verb
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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.

noun
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The hollow part inside a tube, pipe, or cylinder, as of a gun barrel.
noun
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The inside diameter of such a hollow part; gauge; caliber.
noun
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A high wall of moving water caused by a very rapid rise of the tide in shallow, narrow channels.
noun
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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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​ To make a hole through something.
  • Shakespeare.
    I'll believe as soon this whole earth may be bored.
verb
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(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.

verb
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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.

verb
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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.

verb
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(intransitive) To be pierced or penetrated by an instrument that cuts as it turns.

This timber does not bore well.

verb
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(intransitive) To push forward in a certain direction with laborious effort.
verb
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​ To inspire boredom in somebody.
  • Shakespeare.
    He bores me with some trick.
  • Carlyle.
    […] used to come and bore me at rare intervals.
verb
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(of a horse) To shoot out the nose or toss it in the air.

verb
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A hole drilled or milled through something.

The bore of a cannon.

noun
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The tunnel inside of a gun's barrel through which the bullet travels when fired.
noun
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A tool, such as an auger, for making a hole by boring.
noun
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A capped well drilled to tap artesian water. The place where the well exists.
noun
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One who inspires boredom or lack of interest.
noun
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Something that wearies by prolixity or dullness; a tiresome affair.
noun
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Calibre; importance.
noun
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A sudden and rapid flow of tide in certain rivers and estuaries which rolls up as a wave; an eagre.
noun
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Simple past tense of bear.
verb
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A hole or passage made by or as if by use of a drill.
noun
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1

Other Word Forms

Noun

Singular:
bore
Plural:
bores

Origin of bore

  • Middle English bare wave from Old Norse bāra bher-1 in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Middle English boren from Old English borian

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Origin unknown

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • 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.

    From Wiktionary

  • Compare Icelandic word for "wave".

    From Wiktionary

Bore Sentence Examples

  • I don't want to bore you to death.

  • Had she been a complete bore lately?

  • Jackson is a real bore, he's Dracula every single year, ughh.

  • The ice bore him but it swayed and creaked, and it was plain that it would give way not only under a cannon or a crowd, but very soon even under his weight alone.

  • She's not as beautiful as the one who bore the infant and until, and until today lived in this house.

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Also Mentioned In

Words near bore in the Dictionary