Word.ws English Dictionary

bore

UK/bɔː//boɹ/

bore verb: to inspire boredom in somebody. Also the simple past of bear.

bore: to inspire boredom in somebody
Image: Pearson Scott Foresman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To inspire boredom in somebody.
    • to bore someone to death
    • Reading books really bores me; films are much more exciting.
  2. (transitive) To make a hole through something.
    • I'll believe as soon this whole earth may be bored.c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First...
    • On June 8, 1872, the London & North Western Railway obtained powers to quadruple its main line, and a new tunnel was bored for the up and down slow lines.1950 September, “Network News: Watford Tunnel, L.M.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 641
  3. (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.
  4. (transitive) 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
    • short but very powerful jaws, by means whereof the insect can bore […] a cylindrical passage through the most solid wood1862, Thaddeus William Harris, A Treatise on Some of the Insects Injurious to Vegetation
  5. (transitive) 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
    • What bustling crowds I bored.[1716], [John] Gay, “Book III. Of Walking the Streets by Night.”, in Trivia: Or, The Art of Walking the Streets of London, London: […] Bernard Lintott, […], →OCLC, page 79
  6. (intransitive) To be pierced or penetrated by an instrument that cuts as it turns.
    • This timber does not bore well.
  7. (intransitive) To glare (as if to drill a hole with the eyes).
    • Their eyes bore into my back.
  8. (slang, transitive) To push or drive (a boxer into the ropes, a boat out of its course, etc.).
    • The right hand of Curtis was open too much ; but he nevertheless had the best of the hitting in this round, till Inglis bored him down, out of the ropes.1824, Pierce Egan, Boxiana; Or, Sketches of Ancient and Modern Pugilism, page 600
    • Hanlan, it seems, led at about a mile, when Beach's steamer bored him, and to avoid the danger of being swamped, he put on a violent spurt and drew well clear of Beach, getting some lengths lead.1885, Tresham Gilbey, Baily's Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, volume 43, page 107
  9. (intransitive) To push forward in a certain direction with laborious effort.
    • They take their flight […] boring to the west.1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
  10. (obsolete) To fool; to trick.

Noun (1)

bore (plural bores)

  1. A hole drilled, bored, or milled through something.
    • the bore of a cannon
    • the bores of wind-instruments1631, Francis [Bacon], “II. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee...
  2. (Australia) A borehole sunk into an artesian basin to provide a source of water.
  3. The diameter of such a hole.
    1. (especially) The diameter of a cylinder in a piston engine or compressor.
      • The bore times the stroke times the number of cylinders equals displacement.
  4. The tunnel inside of a gun's barrel through which the bullet travels when fired, or (by extension) its diameter.
  5. A tool, such as an auger, for making a hole by boring.
  6. A capped well drilled to tap artesian water.
    1. The place where such a well exists.
  7. One who inspires boredom or lack of interest; an uninteresting person.
    • My neighbour is such a bore when he talks about his coin collection.
  8. Something dull or uninteresting.
    • What a bore that movie was! There was no action, and the dialogue was totally uncreative.
    • It is as great a bore as to hear a poet read his own verses.1871, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Passages from the French and Italian Notebooks
  9. Calibre; importance.
    • Yet are they much too light for the bore of the matter.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...

Noun (2)

bore (plural bores)

  1. A sudden and rapid flow of tide occurring in certain rivers and estuaries which rolls up as a wave.
    • In another moment a huge wave, like a muddy tidal bore, but almost scaldingly hot, came sweeping round the bend up-stream.1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 102
    Synonyms:
    eagre, tidal bore

Proper noun capitalized: Bore

Bore

  1. A surname.

Also used as

bore is also the simple past of bear.

bore is also the past participle of bear.

bore is also the simple past of bare.

bore meaning in Urdu, Telugu, Nepali and Arabic

bore in Urdu

to inspire boredom
بور bor

bore in Telugu

to make a hole
తొలుచు tolucu

bore in Nepali

बोर गर्न, बोर गर्ने

bore in Arabic

to make a hole
ثقب thaqaba
to inspire boredom
أَمَلَّ ʔamalla
More languagesFewer languages
bore in Persian
سفتن softan, پرگو por-gu
bore in Thai
เจาะ jɔ̀, ไช chai
bore in Vietnamese
khoan, đục, khoét

Examples of bore in a sentence

  • […] used to come and bore me at rare intervals.1881, Thomas Carlyle, Reminiscences:
  • ‘You give me twelve bob a foot, an’ I’ll bloomin’ quick show you whether I can bore or not.’1911, ‘Steel Rudd’, The Book of Dan, Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, published 1970, page 1:

All 40 example sentences with bore

Synonyms of bore

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of bore

Forms of bore

Verb
third-person singular presentbores
present participleboring
past participlebored
pastbored
Noun
pluralbores

Past tense of bore: bored

Plural of bore: bores

Origin of bore

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 Middle English *bore, bare, a borrowing from Old Norse bára (“billow, wave”), from Proto-Germanic *bērō (“that which bears or carries”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear”). Cognate with Icelandic bára (“billow, wave”), Faroese bára (“billow, wave”). Doublet of bier.

Words formed from bore

Phrases with bore

18 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with bore

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about bore

What does bore mean?
Bore means to inspire boredom in somebody.
What is bore in Urdu?
Bore in Urdu is بور (bor). See Bore meaning in Urdu.
How do you use bore in a sentence?
[…] used to come and bore me at rare intervals.
What part of speech is bore?
Bore can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce bore?
Bore is pronounced /bɔː/ (UK).
What is the past tense of bore?
The past tense of bore is bored.

Words near bore in the dictionary

  1. bordure
  2. bordured
  3. bordures
  4. Borduria
  5. Bordwellian
  6. bore
  7. bore a grudge
  8. bore a hand
  9. bore against
  10. bore away
  11. bore away the bell

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bore (page history and authors); Bore (page history and authors); bore (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-bore.ogg.

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