bore

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to make a hole, especially with a pointed power or hand tool

   I'll bore the holes and you put in the screws.

2. 2
   verb

   to cause to be bored

   They bore me with their stories.

3. 3
   verb

   To inspire boredom in somebody.

   to bore someone to death

4. 4
   verb

   To make a hole through something.

   I'll believe as soon this whole earth may be bored.

5. 5
   verb

   To make a hole with, or as if with, a boring instrument; to cut a circular hole by the rotary motion of a tool.

   to bore for water or oil

6. 6
   verb

   To form or enlarge (something) by means of a boring instrument or apparatus.

   to bore a steam cylinder or a gun barrel; to bore a hole

7. 7
   verb

   To make (a passage) by laborious effort, as in boring; to force a narrow and difficult passage through.

   to bore one’s way through a crowd

8. 8
   verb

   To be pierced or penetrated by an instrument that cuts as it turns.

   This timber does not bore well.

Etymology

From Middle English boren, from Old English borian (“to pierce”), from Proto-West Germanic *borōn, from Proto-Germanic *burōną. Compare Danish bore, Norwegian Bokmål bore, Dutch boren, German bohren, Old Norse bora. Cognate with Latin forō (“to bore, to pierce”), Latin feriō (“strike, cut”) and Albanian birë (“hole”). Sense of wearying may come from a figurative use such as "to bore the ears"; compare German drillen.