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Added 7 October 2026

bore

/bɔː/ verb

Categories: FeelingsActionsEveryday Words

In Latin: terebrō Wiktionary

verb Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about bore at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

  1. To inspire boredom in somebody.
    to bore someone to death
  2. To make a hole through something.
  3. 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

noun

  1. A hole drilled, bored, or milled through something.
    the bore of a cannon
  2. A borehole sunk into an artesian basin to provide a source of water.
  3. The diameter of such a hole. The diameter of a cylinder in a piston engine or compressor.
    The bore times the stroke times the number of cylinders equals displacement.

noun

  1. A sudden and rapid flow of tide occurring in certain rivers and estuaries which rolls up as a wave.

verb

  1. simple past of bear
  2. past participle of bear
  3. simple past of bare

Origin

From Middle English boren, from Old English borian (“to pierce”), from Proto-West Germanic *borōn, from Proto-Germanic *burōną. Compare Danish bore, Norwegian Bokmål bore, Dutch boren, German bohren, Old Norse bora. Cognate with Latin forō (“to bore, to pierce”), Latin feriō (“strike, cut”) and Albanian birë (“hole”). Sense of wearying may come from a figurative use such as "to bore the ears"; compare German drillen.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

Related Words: dullardtireeagreeagercalibrecaliberdrillaegirbore-holeboredom

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