Word.ws English Dictionary

shore

UK/ʃɔː//ʃɔɹ/

shore noun: land adjoining a non-flowing body of water, such as an ocean, lake or pond. Also the simple past of shear.

shore: land adjoining a non-flowing body of water, such as an ocean, lake or pond
Image: Slaunger, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

shore (plural shores)

  1. Land adjoining a non-flowing body of water, such as an ocean, lake or pond.
    • lake shore; bay shore; gulf shore; island shore; mainland shore; river shore; estuary shore; pond shore; sandy shore; rocky shore
    • the fruitful shore of muddy Nile1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Visions of the Worlds Vanitie”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC
  2. Land, usually near a port.
    • The seamen were serving on shore instead of on ships.
    • The passengers signed up for shore tours.

Verb (1)

shore (third-person singular simple present shores, present participle shoring, simple past and past participle shored)

  1. (intransitive, obsolete) To arrive at the shore
    • the ship quickened her way, and shot past that rocke, where wee thought shee would have shored.1589, Richard Hakluyt, The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, […], London: […] George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, […], →OCLC
  2. (obsolete, transitive) To put ashore.
    • I will bring these two moles, these blind ones, aboard him: if he think it fit to shore them againc. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...

Noun (2)

shore (plural shores)

  1. A prop or strut supporting some structure or weight above it.
    • The shores stayed upright during the earthquake.

Verb (2)

shore (third-person singular simple present shores, present participle shoring, simple past and past participle shored)

  1. (transitive) Not followed by up: to provide (something) with support.
    • If houses were present these could be used to conceal the mine opening. As the mine progressed the roof was shored with timbers.1990, Christopher Gravett, Richard Hook, Medieval Siege Warfare, page 45
    • Sometimes it's easier to laminate the strips one at a time, shoring each in place only long enough for the epoxy to set.1993, Jim Trefethen, Wooden Boat Renovation: New Life for Old Boats using Modern Methods, page 106
  2. (transitive) Usually followed by up: to reinforce (something at risk of failure).
    • My family shored me up after I failed the GED.
    • The workers were shoring up the dock after part of it fell into the water.
    Synonyms:
    bolster, prop up

Noun (3)

shore (plural shores)

  1. (transitive, obsolete except Scotland) A sewer.
    • Emptie olde receptacles, or common-shores of filthe.c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry...
    • I need not mention the old common-shore of Rome.1705, J[oseph] Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

Verb (3)

shore (third-person singular simple present shores, present participle shoring, simple past and past participle shored)

  1. (Scotland, archaic, transitive) To threaten or warn unpleasant consequences (for someone); (sometimes) to threaten or warn off or scare away.
    • The Gleds might pyked her at the dyke, Before the lads wad shored them off her.1810, Robert-Hartley Cromek, Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song: with Historical and Traditional Notices Relative to the Manners and Customs of the Peasantry. Now First Published, page 98
    • Bess flew till him […] and with her fatal Knife shored she would geld him, For peace that day.1866, Allan Ramsay, The Poetical Works, with Selections from the Scottish Poets Before Burns, page 59
  2. (Scotland, archaic, transitive, clouds, etc) To threaten (to rain).
    • For a' our tears and sighs are but in vain: Come, help me up; — yon sooty cloud shores rain.1733, Allan Ramsay, “A Pastoral on the death of M. Prior”, in Poems: By Allan Ramsay. With New Additions and Notes, page 210
    • […] the cauld win' louder blew, Shorin' o' drift,[…]1860, William Watt, Poems, on sacred and other subjects; and songs, humorous and sentimental ... Third edition of the songs only-with additional songs, page 34
  3. (Scotland, archaic, transitive) To offer or present (someone something).
    • ... a compliment kindly and decently shored, […]1878, David Vedder, Poems, lyrics, and sketches, page 124

Proper noun capitalized: Shore

Shore

  1. A topographic surname from Middle English.
  2. A suburb of Littleborough, Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, Greater Manchester (OS grid ref SD9216).
  3. A hamlet near Cornholme in Todmorden parish, Calderdale borough, West Yorkshire (OS grid ref SD9126).

Also used as

shore is also the simple past of shear.

shore is also the pronunciation spelling of sure.

shore meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

shore in Hindi

land adjoining a large body of water
समुद्रतट samudrataṭ, सागरतट sāgartaṭ, तट taṭ, किनारा kinārā, कनारा kanārā, साहिल sāhil

shore in Tamil

land adjoining a large body of water
கரை karai

shore in Marathi

land adjoining a large body of water
तट taṭ, किनारा kinārā

shore in Urdu

land adjoining a large body of water
کِنارَہ kināra, ساحِل sāhil
More languagesFewer languages
shore in Bengali
কিনার kinar, তীর tir
shore in Telugu
కర kara
shore in Malayalam
കര kara
shore in Kannada
ಕರೆ kare
shore in Punjabi
ਕੰਢਾ kaṇḍhā
shore in Gujarati
કિનારા
shore in Sanskrit
तीर tīra
shore in Sinhala
වෙරළ weraḷa
shore in Assamese
বেলা bela
shore in Pashto
ساحل sāhel
shore in Arabic
شَاطِئ šāṭiʔ, سَاحِل sāḥil
shore in Malay
pantai, darat
shore in Indonesian
pantai, tepi
shore in Thai
ฝั่ง fàng, ชายฝั่ง chaai-fàng, ตลิ่ง dtà-lìng, หาด hàat
shore in Vietnamese
bờ
shore in Myanmar
ကမ်း kam:

Examples of shore in a sentence

  • In such wounds the skin is reinforced, or "shored," by a firm surface at the instant the bullet exits.1999, Vincent J. M. Di Maio, Gunshot Wounds, page 94:
  • Shoring Excavations Shallow trenches can be shored using wood sheet piling braced by stringers and rakers1999, William P. Spence, Carpentry & Building Construction: A Do-It-Yourself Guide, page 14:
  • ... a' the freits that were begun To shore us ill Shall, in the crackin' of a gun, Flee owre the hill.1891, James Logie Robertson, Ochil Idylls: And Other Poems, page 66:

All 40 example sentences with shore

Synonyms of shore

All synonyms of shore

Forms of shore

Noun
pluralshores
Verb
third-person singular presentshores
present participleshoring
past participleshored
pastshored
Adverb
comparativemore shore
superlativemost shore
Adjective
comparativemore shore
superlativemost shore

Plural of shore: shores

Origin of shore

From Middle English schore, from Old English *sċora (attested as sċor- in placenames), from Proto-Germanic *skurô (“rugged rock, cliff, high rocky shore”). Possibly related to Old English sċieran (“to cut”), which survives today as English shear. Cognate with Middle Dutch scorre (“land washed by the sea”), Middle Low German schor (“shore, coast, headland”), Middle High German schorre ("rocky crag, high rocky shore"; > German Schorre, Schorren (“towering rock, crag”)), and Limburgish sjaor (“riverbank”). Maybe connected with Norwegian Bokmål skjær.

From Late Middle English shore (“a prop, a support”) [and other forms], from Middle Dutch schore, schare (“a prop, a stay”) (modern Dutch schoor), and Middle Low German schōre, schāre (“a prop, a stay; barrier; stockade”) (compare Old Norse skorða (“a prop, a stay”) (Norwegian skor, skorda)); further etymology unknown.

From Late Middle English shoren (“to prop, to support”) [and other forms], from Middle English shore (“a prop, a support”) (see etymology 2) + -en (suffix forming the infinitive form of verbs); compare Middle Dutch schooren (“to prop up, support”) and Middle Low German schore (“to shovel; to sweep”).

Words formed from shore

Phrases with shore

20 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with shore

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about shore

What does shore mean?
Shore means land adjoining a non-flowing body of water, such as an ocean, lake or pond.
What is shore in Hindi?
Shore in Hindi is समुद्रतट (samudrataṭ), सागरतट (sāgartaṭ), तट (taṭ). See Shore meaning in Hindi.
How do you use shore in a sentence?
In such wounds the skin is reinforced, or "shored," by a firm surface at the instant the bullet exits.
What part of speech is shore?
Shore can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce shore?
Shore is pronounced /ʃɔː/ (UK).
What is the plural of shore?
The plural of shore is shores.

Words near shore in the dictionary

  1. shorb
  2. shorba
  3. shorbs
  4. shordies
  5. shordy
  6. shore
  7. shore bird
  8. shore birds
  9. shore break
  10. shore bug
  11. shore bugs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shore (page history and authors); Shore (page history and authors); shore (Gujarati, 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-shore.ogg.

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