Bore (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bored (#); p. pr. & vb. n. Boring.] [OE. borien, AS. borian; akin to Icel. bora, Dan. bore, D. boren, OHG. porn, G. bohren, L. forare, Gr. to plow, Zend bar. &root;91.]
1.
To perforate or penetrate, as a solid body, by turning an auger, gimlet, drill, or other instrument; to make a round hole in or through; to pierce; as, to bore a plank.
I'll believe as soon this whole earth may be bored.
Shak.
2.
To form or enlarge by means of a boring instrument or apparatus; as, to bore a steam cylinder or a gun barrel; to bore a hole.
Short but very powerful jaws, by means whereof the insect can bore, as with a centerbit, a cylindrical passage through the most solid wood.
T. W. Harris.
3.
To make (a passage) by laborious effort, as in boring; as, to bore one's way through a crowd; to force a narrow and difficult passage through.
"What bustling crowds I
bored."
Gay.
4.
To weary by tedious iteration or by dullness; to tire; to trouble; to vex; to annoy; to pester.
He bores me with some trick.
Shak.
Used to come and bore me at rare intervals.
Carlyle.
5.
To befool; to trick.
[Obs.]
I am abused, betrayed; I am laughed at, scorned,
Baffled and bored, it seems.
Beau. & Fl.
© Webster 1913.
Bore, v. i.
1.
To make a hole or perforation with, or as with, a boring instrument; to cut a circular hole by the rotary motion of a tool; as, to bore for water or oil (i. e., to sink a well by boring for water or oil); to bore with a gimlet; to bore into a tree (as insects).
2.
To be pierced or penetrated by an instrument that cuts as it turns; as, this timber does not bore well, or is hard to bore.
3.
To push forward in a certain direction with laborious effort.
They take their flight . . . boring to the west.
Dryden.
4. Ma
To shoot out the nose or toss it in the air; said of a horse.
Crabb.
© Webster 1913.
Bore (?), n.
1.
A hole made by boring; a perforation.
2.
The internal cylindrical cavity of a gun, cannon, pistol, or other firearm, or of a pipe or tube.
The bores of wind instruments.
Bacon.
Love's counselor should fill the bores of hearing.
Shak.
3.
The size of a hole; the interior diameter of a tube or gun barrel; the caliber.
4.
A tool for making a hole by boring, as an auger.
5.
Caliber; importance.
[Obs.]
Yet are they much too light for the bore of the matter.
Shak.
6.
A person or thing that wearies by prolixity or dullness; a tiresome person or affair; any person or thing which causes ennui.
It is as great a bore as to hear a poet read his own verses.
Hawthorne.
© Webster 1913.
Bore, n. [Icel. bara wave: cf. G. empor upwards, OHG. bor height, burren to lift, perh. allied to AS. beran, E. 1st bear. &root;92.] Physical Geog. (a)
A tidal flood which regularly or occasionally rushes into certain rivers of peculiar configuration or location, in one or more waves which present a very abrupt front of considerable height, dangerous to shipping, as at the mouth of the Amazon, in South America, the Hoogly and Indus, in India, and the Tsien-tang, in China.
(b)
Less properly, a very high and rapid tidal flow, when not so abrupt, such as occurs at the Bay of Fundy and in the British Channel.
Editor's note. Webster error. The British Channel is an obsolete (c. 1800) name for the English Channel, but the famous Severn Bore is not there but in the Bristol Channel to the north. Thanks to Gorgonzola for pointing out the error. - Gritchka
© Webster 1913.
Bore,
imp. of 1st & 2d Bear.
© Webster 1913.