Bore

Bore (bōr), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bored; p. pr. & vb. n. Boring.] [OE. borien, AS. borian; akin to Icel. bora, Dan. bore, D. boren, OHG. porōn, G. bohren, L. forare, Gr. φαρᾶν to plow, Zend bar. √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.

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. (Man.) To shoot out the nose or toss it in the air; — said of a horse. Crabb.

Bore (bōr), 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.

Bore, n. [Icel. bāra wave: cf. G. empor upwards, OHG. bor height, burren to lift, perh. allied to AS. beran, E. 1st bear. √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.

Bore, imp. of 1st & 2d Bear.