harbor

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   hold back a thought or feeling about

   They are harboring a grudge against us.

2. 2
   noun

   Any place of shelter.

   The neighborhood is a well-known harbor for petty thieves.

3. 3
   noun

   A sheltered expanse of water, adjacent to land, in which ships may anchor or dock, especially for loading and unloading.

   [T]here aboutes dwelt greate multitudes of people half wilde, hiding thẽſelues in caues of the grounde, of ſmall ſtature, and very fearefull, for as ſoone as they ſawe them they fled into their holes, and that there was a great riuer and very good harborough.

4. 4
   verb

   To provide a harbor or safe place for.

   The docks, which once harbored tall ships, now harbor only petty thieves.

5. 5
   verb

   To take refuge or shelter in a protected expanse of water.

   The fleet harbored in the south.

6. 6
   verb

   To drive (a hunted stag) to covert.

   This is the time that the horseman are flung out, not having the cry to lead them to the death. When quadruped animals of the venery or hunting kind are at rest, the stag is said to be harboured, the buck lodged, the fox kennelled, the badger earthed, the otter vented or watched, the hare formed, and the rabbit set.

7. 7
   verb

   To hold or persistently entertain in one's thoughts or mind.

   She harbors a conviction that her husband has a secret, criminal past.

8. 8
   noun

   a place of refuge and comfort and security

Etymology

From Middle English herberwe, herber, from Old English herebeorg (“shelter, lodgings, quarters”), from Proto-West Germanic *harjabergu (“army shelter, refuge”), from *harjaz (“army”) + *bergō (“protection”), equivalent to Old English here (“army, host”) + beorg (“defense, protection, refuge”). The final syllable was subsequently altered by analogy with the Anglo‐Norman and Old French suffix -or (as seen in loanwords like honour and labour). Doublet of albergo and auberge. See also borrow, bury, harbinger, harry and here.