pour

UK/pɔː//poɹ/

pour verb: to cause (liquid, or liquid-like substance) to flow in a stream, either out of a container or into it. Also the misspelling of pore.

Image: Fabio Ingrosso, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

pour (third-person singular simple present pours, present participle pouring, simple past and past participle poured)

(transitive) To cause (liquid, or liquid-like substance) to flow in a stream, either out of a container or into it.
- pour water from a jug
- pour wine into a decanter
(figuratively, transitive) To send out as in a stream or a flood; to cause (an emotion) to come out; to cause to escape.
- My teacher poured scorn on my attempts at writing.
- How London doth pour out her citizens.1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
(transitive) To send forth from, as in a stream; to discharge uninterruptedly.
- Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat?1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC
(intransitive) To flow, pass, or issue in a stream; to fall continuously and abundantly.
- the rain poured down.
- The rain came pouring down
  When I was drownin', that's when I could finally breathe2014 October 27, Taylor Swift, Imogen Heap, “Clean (Taylor's Version)”, in 1989 (Taylor's Version), performed by Taylor Swift, published 27 October 2023
(impersonal) To rain hard.
- It's pouring outside.
Synonyms:

spate
(intransitive) Of a beverage, to be on tap or otherwise available for serving to customers.
(intransitive) To move in a throng, as a crowd.
- The people poured out of the theater.
- In the rude throng pour on with furious pace.1716, John Gay, Trivia: Or, The Art of Walking the Streets of London
Synonyms:

sweep, crowd, throng
(transitive) To move (a drunk or unsteady person) into or out of a place or vehicle.
- She poured him into a taxi and handed the driver the fare.
- “Was he really drunk?” I asked. “He was stiff!” Bill Garrison told us from the steps. “We just poured him into the car and Mavis took him home.”1954 October, Juanita Sheridan, “There Are No Snakes in Hawaii”, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, page 51

Noun

pour (plural pours)

The act of pouring.
- The bartender's inexpert pour left me with a pint of beer that was half foam.
Something, or an amount, poured.
- Over this time period, the first concrete pour has not only lost workability but has started to set so that it is no longer affected by the action of a vibrator.2003, John Brian Newman, B. S. Choo, Advanced concrete technology: Volume 2
- HS2 Ltd has completed the first base-slab concrete pour at the western end of Old Oak Common station.2023 June 14, “Network News: Concrete for Old Oak Common - and consent for Curzon Street viaduct”, in RAIL, number 985, page 22
(colloquial) A downpour; a flood of precipitation.
- Then, as if to give the lie to the offensive insinuation, he mounted his horse, and rode home ten miles in a pour of rain, without a great coat or umbrella.1831, Susan Ferrier, Destiny; or, the Chief's Daughter, page 84
- But then one of Mr. Knott's men would have had to put on his coat and hat and turn out, as likely as not in the pitch dark, and in torrents of rain in all probability, and grope his way in the dark in the pours of rain, with the pot of food in his hand, a wretched and ridiculous figure, to where...1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC

Also used as

pour is also the misspelling of pore.

pour meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali

pour in Hindi

to cause to flow in a stream: बहना bahnā

pour in Tamil

to cause to flow in a stream: ஊற்று ūṟṟu

pour in Marathi

to cause to flow in a stream: ओतणे otṇe

pour in Bengali

ঢালাও, ঢালা, ঢেলে দেওয়া

More languagesFewer languages

pour in Kannada: ಸುರಿಯಲು
pour in Gujarati: રેડવું, રેડવા માટે, રેડવાનું
pour in Odia: ଢାଳିଦିଅନ୍ତୁ
pour in Assamese: ঢালা dhala, ঢলা dhola
pour in Pashto: تويول toyawël, اچول ačawël
pour in Arabic: صَبَّ ṣabba, سَكَبَ sakaba
pour in Malay: menuang
pour in Persian: ریختن rixtan
pour in Thai: เท tee
pour in Vietnamese: đổ, rót, giội, trút
pour in Myanmar: လောင်း laung:

Examples of pour in a sentence

to pour oil onto chips
to pour out sand or dust.
Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth / With such a full and unwithdrawing hand?1637, John Milton, A Mask presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634, lines 710-711:
At the same time, it is pouring money into cleaning up the country.2013 August 10, “Can China clean up fast enough?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
The bluebloods of golf began pouring into the sweltering nation’s capital yesterday for the 64th U.S.1964 June 16, “All Eyes On Lema At U.S. Open This Week”, in The Indianapolis Star, volume 62, number 11, Indianapolis, Ind., page 22:
When Coop poured himself out of the cab and staggered towards the house, he already knew he'd hate himself in the morning.1994, Nora Roberts, chapter 9, in The Best Mistake, →ISBN:

All 40 example sentences with pour

Synonyms of pour

All synonyms of pour

Forms of pour

Verb
third-person singular present	pours
present participle	pouring
past participle	poured
past	poured
Noun
plural	pours

Past tense of pour: poured

Plural of pour: pours

Origin of pour

From Middle English pouren (“to pour”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Old Northern French purer (“to sift (grain), pour out (water)”), from Latin pūrō (“to purify”), from pūrus (“pure”). Compare Middle Dutch afpuren (“to pour off, drain”). To pour displaced several Middle English verbs: * schenchen, schenken (“to pour”), from Old English sċenċan (“to pour out”) and Old Norse skenkja, from Proto-Germanic *skankijaną. Compare dialectal English shink, skink. * yeten, from Old English ġēotan (“to pour”), from Proto-Germanic *geutaną. * birlen (“to pour, serve drink to”), from Old English byrelian (“to pour, serve drink to”). * hellen (“to pour, pour out”), from Old Norse hella (“to pour out, incline”). * temen (“to pour out, empty”), from Old Norse tœma (“to pour out, empty”). Compare archaic English teem.

Words that rhyme with pour

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about pour

What does pour mean?: Pour means to cause (liquid, or liquid-like substance) to flow in a stream, either out of a container or into it.
What is pour in Hindi?: Pour in Hindi is बहना (bahnā). See Pour meaning in Hindi.
How do you use pour in a sentence?: to pour oil onto chips
What part of speech is pour?: Pour can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce pour?: Pour is pronounced /pɔː/ (UK).
What is the past tense of pour?: The past tense of pour is poured.

Words near pour in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: pour (page history and authors); pour (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pour (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pour (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pour (Odia, 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: 2026-09-02

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

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