• (America) IPA: /bɔɹ/
• (RP) IPA: /bɔː/
• (rhotic, horse-hoarse) IPA: /bo(ː)ɹ/
• (nonrhotic, horse-hoarse) IPA: /boə/

bore (bores, present participle boring; past and past participle bored)

1. (transitive) To inspire boredom in somebody.

   • […] used to come and bore me at rare intervals.

2. (transitive) To make a hole through something.
   • c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:

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

3. (intransitive) 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

   An insect bores into a tree.

4. (transitive) 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

   • short but very powerful jaws, by means whereof the insect can bore […] a cylindrical passage through the most solid wood

5. (transitive) 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

   • What bustling crowds I bored.

6. (intransitive) To be pierced or penetrated by an instrument that cuts as it turns.

   This timber does not bore well.

7. (intransitive) To push forward in a certain direction with laborious effort.

   • They take their flight […] boring to the west.

8. (of a horse) To shoot out the nose or toss it in the air.
9. (obsolete) To fool; to trick.

• (make a hole through something) see also Thesaurus:make hole

• interest

• (to make a hole) borer
• (to inspire boredom) bored, boredom, boring

• French: percer
• German: bohren
• Italian: alesare, scavare, scavare
• Portuguese: cavar
• Russian: сверли́ть
• Spanish: perforar, horadar, agujerear

• French: ennuyer, barber
• German: langweilen
• Italian: annoiare, tediare
• Portuguese: chatear, aborrecer, entediar
• Russian: надоеда́ть
• Spanish: aburrir

bore (plural bores)

1. A hole drilled or milled through something, or (by extension) its diameter.

   the bore of a cannon

   • 1626, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, Or, A Naturall Historie: In Ten Centuries

     the bores of wind-instruments

2. The tunnel inside of a gun's barrel through which the bullet travels when fired, or (by extension) its diameter.
3. A tool, such as an auger, for making a hole by boring.
4. A capped well drilled to tap artesian water. The place where the well exists.
5. One who inspires boredom or lack of interest.
6. Something that wearies by prolixity or dullness; a tiresome affair.

   • It is as great a bore as to hear a poet read his own verses.

7. Calibre; importance.
   • c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act IV, scene vi]:

     Yet are they much too light for the bore of the matter.

• See also Thesaurus:bore

• German: Bohrung
• Italian: foro
• Russian: отве́рстие

• Italian: calibro
• Russian: канал
• Spanish: ánima

• Italian: trapano, saetta, punta

• Italian: pedante, logorroico
• Russian: зану́да
• Spanish: pesado, pelmazo, petardo (colloquial), plasta (colloquial), palizas (colloquial), plomo (colloquial), pestiño (colloquial), muermo (colloquial), sosaina (colloquial)

bore (plural bores)

1. A sudden and rapid flow of tide occuring in certain rivers and estuaries which rolls up as a wave

• eagre

• French: mascaret
• German: Gezeitenwelle
• Italian: flusso anomalo, ondata anomala

1. simple past tense of bear
2. (now, colloquial, nonstandard) Past participle of bear