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.

Multiword verbs with wear

• wear off Phrasal verb A1

  to become reduced or removed through rubbing or use

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Wear is an Old English word whose deeper Indo-European root is shared with Latin vestis, “clothing.” That Latin word also lies behind vest and invest.

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…

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary