Bore

Webster's Dictionary

(1): (v. i.) To be pierced or penetrated by an instrument that cuts as it turns; as, this timber does not bore well, or is hard to bore.

(2): (v. t.) To perforate or penetrate, as a solid body, by turning an auger, gimlet, drill, or other instrument; to make a round hole in or through; to pierce; as, to bore a plank.

(3): (v. t.) To form or enlarge by means of a boring instrument or apparatus; as, to bore a steam cylinder or a gun barrel; to bore a hole.

(4): (v. t.) To make (a passage) by laborious effort, as in boring; as, to bore one's way through a crowd; to force a narrow and difficult passage through.

(5): (v. t.) To weary by tedious iteration or by dullness; to tire; to trouble; to vex; to annoy; to pester.

(6): (v. t.) To befool; to trick.

(7): (v. i.) To make a hole or perforation with, or as with, a boring instrument; to cut a circular hole by the rotary motion of a tool; as, to bore for water or oil (i. e., to sink a well by boring for water or oil); to bore with a gimlet; to bore into a tree (as insects).

(8): (imp.) of Bear

(9): (v. i.) To push forward in a certain direction with laborious effort.

(10): (v. i.) To shoot out the nose or toss it in the air; - said of a horse.

(11): (n.) A hole made by boring; a perforation.

(12): (n.) A tool for making a hole by boring, as an auger.

(13): (n.) Caliber; importance.

(14): (n.) A person or thing that wearies by prolixity or dullness; a tiresome person or affair; any person or thing which causes ennui.

(15): (n.) A tidal flood which regularly or occasionally rushes into certain rivers of peculiar configuration or location, in one or more waves which present a very abrupt front of considerable height, dangerous to shipping, as at the mouth of the Amazon, in South America, the Hoogly and Indus, in India, and the Tsien-tang, in China.

(16): (n.) Less properly, a very high and rapid tidal flow, when not so abrupt, such as occurs at the Bay of Fundy and in the British Channel.

(17): imp. of 1st & 2d Bear.

(18): (n.) The internal cylindrical cavity of a gun, cannon, pistol, or other firearm, or of a pipe or tube.

(19): (n.) The size of a hole; the interior diameter of a tube or gun barrel; the caliber.

King James Dictionary

Bore, L foro and perforo, to bore, to perforate Gr. to pierce or transfix also, to pass over, in which sense it coincides with ferry L. veru, from thrusting or piercing, coincide in elements with this root.

1. To perforate or penetrate a solid body and make a round hole by turning an auger, gimlet, or other instrument. Hence, to make hollow to form a round hole as,to bore a cannon. 2. To eat out or make a hollow by gnawing or corroding, as a worm. 3. To penetrate or break through by turning or labor as, to bore through a crowd.

BORE, To be pierced or penetrated by an instrument that turns as, this timber does not bore well or is hard to bore.

1. To pierce or enter by boring as, an auger bores well. 2. To push forward toward a certain point.

Boring to the west.

3. With horsemen, a horse bores, when he carries his nose to the ground. 4. In a transitive or intransitive sense, to pierce the earth with scooping irons, which, when drawn out, bring with them samples of the different stratums, through which they pass. This is a method of discovering veins of ore and coal without opening a mine.

BORE, n. The hole made by boring. Hence, the cavity or hollow of a gun, cannon, pistol or other fire-arm the caliber whether formed by boring or not.

1. Any instrument for making holes by boring or turning, as an auger, gimlet or wimble.

BORE, n. A tide, swelling above another tide.

A sudden influx of the tide into a river or narrow strait.

BORE, pret. of bear. See Bear.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

bōr  : According to the Book of the Covenant (Ex 20:20 through 23:33) a slave whom his master had purchased was to be released after six years. Should he choose to remain in his master's service a religious ceremony was necessary to ratify his decision. "Then his master shall bring him unto God" (better than "unto the judges" of the King James Version), "and shall bring him to the door, or unto the doorpost; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl" (  Exodus 21:6 ). It is highly improbable that "unto God" means "to a sanctuary"; for there was no special reason for performing this ceremony near the door of a sanctuary. On the other hand the entrance to a private house was a sacred spot. According to primitive thinking near the door dwelt the household gods whose function it was to guard the house and its occupants, e.g. against the entry of disease. It was natural that the ceremony of attaching the slave permanently to the master's household should be performed in the presence of the household gods. "The boring of the ear of slaves was a common practice in antiquity, possibly to symbolize the duty of obedience, as the ear was the organ of hearing" (Bennett). The Deuteronomist ( Deuteronomy 15:17 ) rejects the religious aspect of the ceremony - probably as a relic of Canaanite religion - and looks upon it as a secular and symbolical operation. According to his view, the awl was thrust through the ear of the slave to the door. The slave in question was permanently attached to the household.

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

A watery ridge rushing violently up an estuary, due to a strong tidal wave travelling up a gradually narrowing channel. Bores are common in the estuary of the Ganges and other Asiatic rivers, in those of Brazil, and at the mouth of the Severn, in England.