blear

/blɪə/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˈblɪː/

blear adjective: dim; unclear from water or rheum. Also the alternative form of blare.

Adjective

blear (comparative more blear, superlative most blear)

Dim; unclear from water or rheum.
- A Promontory Wen, with grieſly grace,
  Stood high, upon the Handle of his Face:
  His blear Eyes ran in gutters to his Chin:
  His Beard was stubble, and his Cheeks were thin.1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Sixth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […]...
- The Devil, now disguised as a half-wit peasant to Lars-Goren’s left, stood grinning, his blear eyes glittering.1981, John Gardner, Freddy's Book, Abacus, published 1982, page 74
Causing or caused by dimness of sight.
- Thus I hurle
  My dazling spells into the ſpungie aire
  Of power to cheate the eye with bleare illuſion,
  And give it falſe preſentments, […]1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey...

Verb

blear (third-person singular simple present blears, present participle blearing, simple past and past participle bleared)

(intransitive) To be blear; to have blear eyes; to look or gaze with blear eyes.
- 18th c., attributed to Jonathan Swift, “The Story of Orpheus, Burlesqued,” in Walter Scott (ed.), The Works of Jonathan Swift, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 2nd edition, 1883, Volume 10, p. 403,
  Orpheus, a one-eyed blearing Thracian,
  The crowder of that barb’rous nation,
  Was ballad-singer by...
- The street-lamps blearing thro’ the rainy rout,
  Each like a winking, sickly evil-eye.1886, John Grosvenor Wilson, “A Rainy Day in Town”, in Lyrics of Life, New York: Caxton Book Concern, page 146
(transitive) To make (usually the eyes or eyesight) blurred or dim.
- your ſelf you cannot ſo diſguiſe:1584, Anonymous, Sonnet, in Clement Robinson et al., A Handefull of Pleasnt Delites, London: Richard Ihones, reprinted from the original edition for the Spenser Society, 1871, p. 52, I Smile to ſee...
- Here’s Lucentio, right ſonne to the right Vincentio,
  That haue by marriage made thy daughter mine,
  While counterfeit ſuppoſes bleer’d thine eine.c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
(transitive) To blur, make blurry.
- When winter blears bleakly the forest,
  And the water binds gray to its blue,
  Safe and sound in her covert I leave her,
  Till spring calls again my canoe.1865, Alfred Billings Street, “My Canoe”, in Forest Pictures in the Adirondacks, New York: Gregory, page 33
- Now, one among the foremost, looking up
  By chance, with horror saw, in farthest sky
  Fronting their course, a troublous film of cloud,—
  A strange, dark, troublous film of cloud,—
  Blearing the beauty of the crystal wall.1888, David Atwood Wasson, “Babes of God” Part II in Poems, Boston: Lee & Shepard, p. 36

Also used as

blear is also the alternative form of blare.

Examples of blear in a sentence

The latter looked out with three tiers of vacant melancholy windows, which were blank and dreary, save that here and there a “To Let” card had developed like a cataract upon the bleared panes.1887, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “A Study in Scarlet”, in Beeton’s Christmas Annual, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward, Lock & Co., part I (Being a...
He was useful to the man, for his sharp young eyes could pick up net or trawl buoys, white with a stripe of scarlet, far quicker than the rum-bleared eyes of his stepfather.1928, Frank Parker Day, chapter 1, in Rockbound:
He stared at but did not see the bleared reflection of the flanking cherubs a hundred feet above the steel-grey veneer of water.1946, Mervyn Peake, “Here and There”, in Titus Groan, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode:

Forms of blear

Adjective
comparative	more blear
superlative	most blear
alternative form (archaic)	bleer
Verb
third-person singular present	blears
present participle	blearing
past participle	bleared
past	bleared

Origin of blear

From Middle English blere, related to Low German bleeroged (“bleareyed”), Middle High German blerre (“double vision”), German Blerre (“double vision”). Perhaps also related to blur.

From Middle English bleren, from Old English *blerian.

From Middle English bleren, from Old English *blǣran, related to West Frisian blearje (“to bleat, shout”), Dutch bleren, blaren (“to bellow, bleat”), German Low German blaren, blarren (“to blare, howl, shriek”), German plärren (“to howl, shriek, blare”).

Words formed from blear

Words that rhyme with blear

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about blear

What does blear mean?: Blear means dim; unclear from water or rheum.
How do you use blear in a sentence?: The latter looked out with three tiers of vacant melancholy windows, which were blank and dreary, save that here and there a “To Let” card had developed like a cataract upon the bleared panes.
What part of speech is blear?: Blear can be an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce blear?: Blear is pronounced /blɪə/ (UK).

Words near blear in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: blear (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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Cite this entry: “blear.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blear. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.