wear

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To have clothes, jewellery, or other items on your body.

   What should I wear to the party tonight?

2. 2
   verb

   To have a particular expression on your face.

   She wore a worried look all morning.

3. 3
   verb

   To damage or remove something gradually by rubbing or long use.

   You're going to wear a hole in those shoes.

4. 4
   noun

   Damage caused to something by being used a lot over time.

   The tyres showed a lot of wear.

Common collocations

• wear a ring Verb + noun
• wear a watch Verb + noun
• wear pants Verb + noun
• casual wear Adjective + noun
• everyday wear Adjective + noun
• formal wear Adjective + noun
• heavy wear Adjective + noun
• show wear Verb + noun
• cause wear Verb + noun
• reduce wear Verb + noun
• withstand wear Verb + noun

Inherited from Middle English weren, werien, from Old English werian (“to clothe, cover over; put on, wear, use; stock (land)”), from Proto-West Germanic *waʀjan, from Proto-Germanic *wazjaną (“to clothe”), from Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“to dress, put on (clothes)”). Cognate to Sanskrit वस्ते (váste), Ancient Greek ἕννυμι (hénnumi, “put on”), Latin vestis (“garment”) (English vest), Albanian vesh (“dress up, wear”), Tocharian B wäs-, Old Armenian զգենում (zgenum), Welsh gwisgo, Hittite 𒉿𒀸- (waš-). Originally a weak verb (i.e. with a past tense in -ed), it became irregular during the Middle E…

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