BORE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does bore mean? 

• BORE (noun)
  The noun BORE has 4 senses:

1. a person who evokes boredom

2. a high wave (often dangerous) caused by tidal flow (as by colliding tidal currents or in a narrow estuary)

3. diameter of a tube or gun barrel

4. a hole or passage made by a drill; usually made for exploratory purposes

  Familiarity information: BORE used as a noun is uncommon.

• BORE (verb)
  The verb BORE has 2 senses:

1. cause to be bored

2. make a hole, especially with a pointed power or hand tool

  Familiarity information: BORE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BORE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who evokes boredom

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

bore; dullard

Hypernyms ("bore" is a kind of...):

disagreeable person; unpleasant person (a person who is not pleasant or agreeable)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bore"):

gasbag; windbag (a boring person who talks a great deal about uninteresting topics)

nudnick; nudnik ((Yiddish) someone who is a boring pest)

platitudinarian (a bore who makes excessive use of platitudes)

stuffed shirt (a bore who is extremely formal, pompous, and old-fashioned)

Derivation:

bore (cause to be bored)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A high wave (often dangerous) caused by tidal flow (as by colliding tidal currents or in a narrow estuary)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

aegir; bore; eager; eagre; tidal bore

Hypernyms ("bore" is a kind of...):

tidal current; tidal flow (the water current caused by the tides)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Diameter of a tube or gun barrel

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

bore; caliber; calibre; gauge

Hypernyms ("bore" is a kind of...):

diam; diameter (the length of a straight line passing through the center of a circle and connecting two points on the circumference)

Derivation:

bore (make a hole, especially with a pointed power or hand tool)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A hole or passage made by a drill; usually made for exploratory purposes

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

bore; bore-hole; drill hole

Hypernyms ("bore" is a kind of...):

excavation (a hole in the ground made by excavating)

Domain category:

excavation; mining (the act of extracting ores or coal etc from the earth)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bore"):

shot hole (drill hole for a charge of an explosive)

Derivation:

bore (make a hole, especially with a pointed power or hand tool)

• BORE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they bore    ... he / she / it bores   
Past simple: bored   
Past participle: bored   
-ing form: boring   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause to be bored

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

bore; tire

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The performance is likely to bore Sue

Antonym:

interest (excite the curiosity of; engage the interest of)

Derivation:

bore (a person who evokes boredom)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make a hole, especially with a pointed power or hand tool

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

bore; drill

Context example:

carpenter bees are boring holes into the wall

Hypernyms (to "bore" is one way to...):

cut (separate with or as if with an instrument)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "bore"):

spud (initiate drilling operations, as for petroleum)

counter-drill (drill in an opposite direction)

trepan (cut a hole with a trepan, as in surgery)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

bore (a hole or passage made by a drill; usually made for exploratory purposes)

bore (diameter of a tube or gun barrel)

borer (any of various insects or larvae or mollusks that bore into wood)

borer (a drill for penetrating rock)

 Context examples 

I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the situation.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Across his shoulders he bore a burden of fresh-killed meat.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

The flesh and the qualms of the flesh she was heir to, but the flesh bore heavily only on the flesh.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Up to this point the incident bore the appearance of an ordinary accident, but fresh indications seem to point to serious crime.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But you have taken some pains to bore the head of it and pour melted lead into the hole so as to make it a formidable weapon.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

To listen to conversation about such things would mean to be bored, wherefore the idlers decree that such things are shop and must not be talked about.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It was very pale; and bore the traces of deeper emotion than my letter alone, weakened by the doubts her fondness would have raised upon it, would have been likely to create.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

No lazy, sun-kissed life was this, with nothing to do but loaf and be bored.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

We have all got arms, even for me a large-bore revolver; Jonathan would not be happy unless I was armed like the rest.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

In my eyes it bore a livelier image of the spirit, it seemed more express and single, than the imperfect and divided countenance I had been hitherto accustomed to call mine.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)