Word.ws English Dictionary

rear

UK/ˈɹɪə/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˈɹɪː/

rear verb: to bring up to maturity, as offspring; to educate; to instruct; to foster.

rear: to bring up to maturity, as offspring; to educate; to instruct; to foster
Image: Myousry6666, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb (1)

rear (third-person singular simple present rears, present participle rearing, simple past and past participle reared)

  1. (transitive) To bring up to maturity, as offspring; to educate; to instruct; to foster.
    • He wants a father to protect his youth, and rear him up to virtue.1694, Thomas Southerne, Isabella: Or The Fatal Marriage
  2. (transitive) To breed and raise.
    • The family has been rearing cattle for 200 years.
  3. (intransitive) To rise up on the hind legs.
    • The horse was shocked, and thus reared.
    Synonyms:
    prance
  4. (intransitive, usually) To get angry.
  5. (intransitive) To rise high above, tower above.
    • By my side reared a solid stone wall, and beneath was simply the room we stood in, for the space below the stairway was not enclosed.1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC
  6. (literary, transitive) To raise physically or metaphorically; to lift up; to cause to rise, to elevate.
    • Poverty reared its ugly head. (appeared, started, began to have an effect)
    • The monster slowly reared its head.
  7. (rare, transitive) To construct by building; to set up
    • to rear defenses or houses
    • to rear one government on the ruins of another.
  8. (rare, transitive) To raise spiritually; to lift up; to elevate morally.
    • It reareth our hearts from vain thoughts.1700, Isaac Barrow, Of Industry...
  9. (obsolete, transitive) To lift and take up.
    • And hauing her from Trompart lightly reard, / Vpon his Courser set the louely lode,1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 19
  10. (obsolete, transitive) To rouse; to strip up.
    • And seeks the tusky boar to rear.1684, John Dryden, The Second Epode of Horace

Adjective (1)

rear (not comparable)

  1. Being behind, or in the hindmost part; hindmost.
    • the rear rank of a company
    • sit in the rear seats of a car

Adverb

rear (not comparable)

  1. (UK, dialectal) early; soon
    • Then why does Cuddy leave his cot so rear!1714, John Gay, The Shepherd's Week

Noun

rear (plural rears)

  1. The back or hindmost part; that which is behind, or last in order.
    • Nipt with the lagging rear of winters froſt.1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 91
    Antonyms:
    front
  2. Specifically, the part of an army or fleet which comes last, or is stationed behind the rest.
    • When the fierce Foe hung on our brok'n Rear1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
  3. The buttocks or bottom.
    Synonyms:
    rear end

Verb (2)

rear (third-person singular simple present rears, present participle rearing, simple past and past participle reared)

  1. To place in the rear; to secure the rear of.
  2. (UK, transitive, vulgar) To sodomize (perform anal sex)

Verb (3)

rear (third-person singular simple present rears, present participle rearing, simple past and past participle reared)

  1. (transitive) To move; stir.
  2. (transitive) To carve.
    • Rear that goose!
  3. (obsolete, regional) To revive, bring to life, quicken. (only in the phrase, to rear to life)
    • He healeth the blind and he reareth to life the dead.

Adjective (2)

rear (comparative rearer or more rear, superlative rearest or most rear)

  1. (dialectal) (of eggs) Underdone; nearly raw.
  2. (US) (of meats) Rare.
    • Fred ordered a rear steak along with a glass of beer as he took a seat at an empty table2017, Dr. Ardeshir Irani, Short Tales of the Old Wild West

rear meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

rear in Hindi

rear, hind part
पीछा pīchā
to rear, raise, nurture
पालना pālnā

rear in Tamil

பின் பக்கம், வளர்

rear in Urdu

rear, back part, hind quarter
پچھواڑا pichvāṛā

rear in Bengali

rear, backside, back end
শেষ śeś
More languagesFewer languages
rear in Telugu
సాకు sāku, సంరక్షించు saṁrakṣiñcu
rear in Malayalam
സൈന്യപിന്നണി, പൃഷ്ഠഭാഗം
rear in Kannada
ನೇರ ನಿಲ್ಲು, ನೇರ ಮೇಲೇರು, ಸಾಕು, ಬೆಳೆಸು
rear in Gujarati
પાળવું pāḷvũ
rear in Sanskrit
पोषयति poṣayati
rear in Assamese
পোহা püha, পাল pal
rear in Pashto
شا šâ, څټ śëṭ
rear in Arabic
خَلْفِيّ ḵalfiyy
rear in Vietnamese
nuôi nấng, nuôi, nâng

Examples of rear in a sentence

  • In adoration at his feet I fell Submiss; he reared me.1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert...
  • Mine [shall be] the first hand to rear her banner.1835, Lord Lytton, Rienzi, the Last of the Roman Tribunes:

All 40 example sentences with rear

Synonyms of rear

Antonyms

Forms of rear

Verb
third-person singular presentrears
present participlerearing
past participlereared
pastreared
alternative formreer
alternative formrere
alternative formrare
Noun
pluralrears
Adjective
comparativerearer
comparativemore rear
superlativerearest
superlativemost rear

Past tense of rear: reared

Plural of rear: rears

Origin of rear

From Middle English reren (“to raise”), from Old English rǣran (“to raise, set upright, promote, exalt, begin, create, give rise to, excite, rouse, arouse, stir up”), from Proto-West Germanic *raiʀijan, from Proto-Germanic *raizijaną, *raisijaną (“to cause to rise, raise”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rey- (“to lift oneself, rise”). Cognate with Scots rere (“to construct, build, rear”), Icelandic reisa (“to raise”), Gothic 𐍂𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌾𐌰𐌽 (raisjan, “to cause to rise, lift up, establish”), German reisen (“to travel”, literally “to rear up and depart”); and a doublet of raise. More at rise. Related to rise and raise, which is used for several of its now archaic or obsolete senses and for some of its senses that are currently more common in other dialects of English.

From Middle English rere, from Anglo-Norman rere, ultimately from Latin retro. Compare arrear. Doublet of retro.

From Middle English reren, from Old English hrēran (“to move, shake, agitate”), from Proto-Germanic *hrōzijaną (“to stir”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱroHs- (“to mix, stir, cook”). Cognate with Dutch roeren (“to stir, shake, whip”), German rühren (“to stir, beat, move”), Swedish röra (“to touch, move, stir”), Icelandic hræra (“to stir”).

Words formed from rear

Phrases with rear

11 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with rear

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about rear

What does rear mean?
Rear means to bring up to maturity, as offspring; to educate; to instruct; to foster.
What is rear in Hindi?
Rear in Hindi is पीछा (pīchā), पालना (pālnā). See Rear meaning in Hindi.
How do you use rear in a sentence?
In adoration at his feet I fell Submiss; he reared me.
What part of speech is rear?
Rear can be a verb, an adjective, an adverb or a noun.
How do you pronounce rear?
Rear is pronounced /ˈɹɪə/ (UK).
What is the past tense of rear?
The past tense of rear is reared.

Words near rear in the dictionary

  1. reaps the harvest
  2. reaps the whirlwind
  3. reaps what one sows
  4. reapt
  5. reaptd.
  6. rear
  7. rear admiral
  8. rear admiral (lower half)
  9. rear admiral (upper half)
  10. rear admiral junior grade
  11. rear admiral lower half

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rear (page history and authors); पालना (Hindi) (page history and authors); rear (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); پچھواڑا (Urdu) (page history and authors); শেষ (Bengali) (page history and authors); సంరక్షించు (Telugu) (page history and authors); rear (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rear (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); પાળવું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); पोषयति (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); পাল (Assamese) (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.

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