serer

Adjective (1)

sere (comparative serer, superlative serest)

1. (archaic, literary, poetic) Without moisture; dry.
   • The autumn winds rushing / Waft the leaves that are searest, / But our flower was in flushing, / When blighting was nearest.1810, Walter Scott, “Canto III. The Gathering.”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and...

   Synonyms:

   sare, sear, anhydrous, arid, bone dry, droughty, dry, dry as a bone, exsuccous, parched

2. (archaic, literary, poetic) Of thoughts, etc.: barren, fruitless.
   • Our talk had been serious and sober,
     But our thoughts they were palsied and sere—
     Our memories were treacherous and sere—1847, Edgar Allan Poe, Ulalume: A Ballad
3. (obsolete) Of fabrics: threadbare, worn out.
   • The roaring wind! it roar'd far off, / It did not come anear; / But with its sound it shook the sails / That were so thin and sere.1797–1798 (date written), [Samuel Taylor Coleridge], “The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere”, in Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, London: […] J[ohn] & A[rthur] Arch, […], published 1798, →OCLC...

Adjective (2)

sere (comparative more sere, superlative most sere)

1. (UK, dialectal, obsolete) Individual, separate, set apart.
   • Therefore I have ſeene good ſhooters [archers] which would have for everye bowe a ſere caſe, made of wullen clothe, and then you maye putte three or four of them ſo caſed, into a lether caſe if you will.1544 (date written; published 1571), Roger Ascham, Toxophilus, the Schole, or Partitions, of Shooting. […], London: […] Thomas Marshe, →OCLC; republished in The English Works of Roger Ascham, […]...
2. (UK, dialectal, obsolete) Different; diverse.
   • Thou wert well-nee moidered [footnote: Distracted.] wi' me, I know, but it thou'd telled me, Mary, I mun do better or else we mun goo our sere-ways [footnote: Different ways.], belike I should a done better. I'm nobbut a mon, Mary, a lundy day-tale mon [footnote: Clumsy day-labourer.].1910, James Prior, “Bishoped Porridge”, in Fortuna Chance, London: Constable & Co. Ltd., →OCLC, page 316

See all 8 meanings of sere