wear

Verb (1)

wear (third-person singular simple present wears, present participle wearing, simple past wore or (obsolete) ware, past participle worn or (now colloquial and nonstandard) wore or (obsolete) worne)

1. (transitive) To carry or have equipped on or about one's body, as an item of clothing, equipment, decoration, perfume, etc.
   • He's wearing some nice pants today.
   • She wore her medals with pride.
2. (transitive) To have or carry on one's person habitually, consistently; or, to maintain in a particular fashion or manner.
   • He wears eyeglasses.
   • She wears her hair in braids.
3. (transitive) To bear or display in one's aspect or appearance.
   • She wore a smile all day.
   • He walked out of the courtroom wearing an air of satisfaction.
4. To eat away at, erode, diminish, or consume gradually; to cause a gradual deterioration in; to produce (some change) through attrition, exposure, or constant use.
   • You're going to wear a hole in the bottom of those shoes.
   • The water has slowly worn a channel into these rocks.
5. (copulative, intransitive) To undergo gradual deterioration; become impaired; be reduced or consumed gradually due to any continued process, activity, or use.
   • The tiles were wearing thin due to years of children's feet.
   • His stock of money[…] began to wear very low.1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown...
6. To exhaust, fatigue, expend, or weary.
   • His neverending criticism has finally worn my patience.
   • Toil and care soon wear the spirit.
7. (colloquial, intransitive) (in the phrase "wearing on (someone)") To cause annoyance, irritation, fatigue, or weariness near the point of an exhaustion of patience.
   • Her high pitched voice is really wearing on me lately.
8. (colloquial) To overcome one's reluctance and endure a (previously specified) situation.
   • I know you don't like working with him, but you'll just have to wear it.
9. (intransitive) To last or remain durable under hard use or over time; to retain usefulness, value, or desirable qualities under any continued strain or long period of time; sometimes said of a person, regarding the quality of being easy or difficult to tolerate.
   • Don't worry, this fabric will wear. These pants will last you for years.
   • This color wears so well. I must have washed this sweater a thousand times.
10. (intransitive) To pass slowly, gradually or tediously.
    • wear on, wear away.
    • As the years wore on, we seemed to have less and less in common.
11. To bring (a sailing vessel) onto the other tack by bringing the wind around the stern (as opposed to tacking when the wind is brought around the bow); to come round on another tack by turning away from the wind.

    Synonyms:

    gybe

Noun

wear (uncountable)

1. (in-compounds) Clothing.
   • footwear; outdoor wear; maternity wear
2. Damage to the appearance and/or strength of an item caused by use over time.
   • Now, I still think that for this box of matches to have escaped the wear of time for immemorial years was a most strange, as for me it was a most fortunate, thing.1895 May 29, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Palace of Green Porcelain”, in The Time Machine: An Invention, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, pages 114–115
3. Fashion.
   • Motley's the onely weare.c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
4. Wearing.
   • It is obvious, of course, that a cylinder so applied is not for constant wear, and it is not intended in any way to correct any error of refraction, but is used merely as an exercise for a few minutes at a time at repeated intervals. In case of Oblique Astigmatism the wearing of the correction will...1903, Lionel G. Amsden, Principles and Practices of Refraction: An Elementary Treatise on the Science of Refraction as Applied to “Sight Testing”, page 209
   • Prolonged wear of the interceptor body armor outer tactical vest (OTV) is frequently blamed for common complaints of neck and shoulder pain. […] Even if patients improved after a period of light duty and shoulder rehabilitation, many complained of pain after returning to OTV wear when their...2008 November, Sarah D. Thomas, “Measures to Prevent Profiles in Combat Support Commands”, in Army Logistician, volume 40, number 6, page 22

Verb (2)

wear (third-person singular simple present wears, present participle wearing, simple past weared or wore, past participle weared or wore or worn or (obsolete) worne)

1. (UK, dialectal, transitive) To guard; watch; keep watch, especially from entry or invasion.
2. (UK, dialectal, transitive) To defend; protect.
3. (UK, dialectal, transitive) To ward off; prevent from approaching or entering; drive off; repel.
   • to wear the wolf from the sheep
4. (UK, dialectal, transitive) To conduct or guide with care or caution, as into a fold or place of safety.

Proper noun capitalized: Wear

IPA/wɪə(ɹ)/

Wear

1. A river in the counties of County Durham and Tyne and Wear, north east England. The cities of Durham and Sunderland are situated upon its grand banks.
   • The train then proceeded along the wagonway in the direction of the Wear.[…] The ladies remained at the house, while the men walked to the staith on the Wear, and were shown the process of unloading the wagons into the keels by means of the coal-drop.1948 January and February, “Notes and News: Duke of Wellington's Early Railway Journey”, in Railway Magazine, pages 55–56