hoar
UK/hɔː/US/hoɹ/
hoar noun: a white or greyish-white colour.
Noun
hoar
- A white or greyish-white colour.
- Hoariness; antiquity.
- His grants are engrafted on the public law of Europe, covered with the awful hoar of innumerable ages.1796, Edmund Burke, A Letter from the Right Honourable Edmund Burke to a Noble Lord, 10th edition, London: For J. Owen, and F. and C. Rivington, page 52
- Synonyms:
- agedness
Adjective
hoar (not comparable)
- Of a white or greyish-white colour.
- So forth they rowèd; and that ferryman / With his stiff oars did brush the sea so strong, / That the hoar waters from his frigate ran, / And the light bubbles danced all along. / Whiles the salt brine out of the billows sprong.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 10
- old trees with trunks all hoar1816, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Third, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […], →OCLC, stanza CI
- Synonyms:
- frosty
- Hoarily bearded.
- And lo, where rapt in beauty's heavenly dream
Hoar Plato walks his olived Academe.1751, Thomas Warton, Newmarket, a Satire - This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.1847 November 1, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie, Boston, Mass.: William D. Ticknor & Company, →OCLC, (please specify either |part=I or II)
- And lo, where rapt in beauty's heavenly dream
- Musty; mouldy; stale.
- But a hare that is hoar
Is too much for a score
When it hoars ere it be spent.c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- But a hare that is hoar
- Figuratively, grey or grey-haired with age; ancient, venerable.
- Oft list'ning how the hounds and horn
Cheerly rouse the slumb'ring morn,
From the side of some hoar hill,
Through the high wood echoing shrill.1645, John Milton, L'Allegro - Be Thou with me until Old-age, and even to hoar hairs do Thou carrie me. P. Isa. 46.4.1648, Lancelot Andrewes, A manual of directions for the sick with many sweet meditations and devotions of the R. Reverend Father in God, Lancelot Andrews, late L. Bishop of Winchester: to which are...
- Oft list'ning how the hounds and horn
Verb
hoar (third-person singular simple present hoars, present participle hoaring, simple past and past participle hoared)
- To become mouldy or musty.
- But a hare that is hoar / Is too much for a score / When it hoars ere it be spent.c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
Proper noun capitalized: Hoar
Hoar (plural Hoars)
- A surname.
hoar meaning in Tamil and Kannada
hoar in Tamil
- மூப்பு, நரைமுதிர்தோற்றம், உறைபனி வெண்திரை, மூப்பால் நரைத்த, சாம்பற் சாயல் கலந்த வெண்ணிறமான, நரைவெள்ளையான
hoar in Kannada
- ನರೆ, ನರೆತ, ನರೆತಿರುವುದು
Examples of hoar in a sentence
- Bright fell the moonlight on pillar and court and shattered wall, hiding all their rents and imperfections in its silver garment, and clothing their hoar majesty with the peculiar glory of the night.1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
- It was not one of those feelings drawn from hoar antiquity, when habit has become religion.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVI, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry...
Synonyms of hoar
Forms of hoar
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | hoars |
| present participle | hoaring |
| past participle | hoared |
| past | hoared |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Hoars |
| alternative form | Hoare |
Origin of hoar
From Middle English hor, hore, from Old English hār (“hoar, hoary, grey, old”), from Proto-West Germanic *hair, from Proto-Germanic *hairaz (“grey”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₃- (“grey, dark”). Cognate with German hehr (“noble, sublime”), Herr (“sir, gentleman”), Scottish Gaelic ciar (“dusky”), and Russian се́рый (séryj, “grey”).
* As an English surname, from the adjective hoar (“greyish white”). * Also as an English surname, from Ore in Sussex, or its source Old English ōra (“edge, brink”). Compare Middle English Hore.
Words formed from hoar
Phrases with hoar
Words that rhyme with hoar
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about hoar
- What does hoar mean?
- Hoar means a white or greyish-white colour.
- What is hoar in Tamil?
- Hoar in Tamil is மூப்பு, நரைமுதிர்தோற்றம், உறைபனி வெண்திரை. See Hoar meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use hoar in a sentence?
- Bright fell the moonlight on pillar and court and shattered wall, hiding all their rents and imperfections in its silver garment, and clothing their hoar majesty with the peculiar glory of the night.
- What part of speech is hoar?
- Hoar can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce hoar?
- Hoar is pronounced /hɔː/ (UK).
Words near hoar in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hoar (page history and authors); Hoar (page history and authors); hoar (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hoar (Kannada Wiktionary) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-ca-whore.ogg.
Cite this entry: “hoar.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hoar. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.