Trivia Time

Which fleet was notoriously damaged when shipworms bored into the boats?

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bore

¹ American  

[bawr] / bɔr /

verb (used with object)

bored, boring

1. to weary by dullness or sameness.

   The long speech bored me.

   Synonyms:

   annoy, tire, fatigue

   Antonyms:

   enrapture, thrill, amuse

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noun

1. a dull, tiresome, or uncongenial person.

   He's such a bore that I'd rather stay home than go out with him.

2. a cause of inconvenience or petty annoyance.

   The job has a lot of repetitive tasks that are a bore to do.

bore ² American  

[bawr] / bɔr /

verb (used with object)

bored, boring

1. to pierce (a solid substance) with some rotary cutting instrument.

   Synonyms:

   drill, perforate

2. to make (a hole) by drilling with such an instrument.

3. to form, make, or construct (a tunnel, mine, well, passage, etc.) by hollowing out, cutting through, or removing a core of material.

   to bore a tunnel through the Alps;

   to bore an oil well 3,000 feet deep.

4. Machinery. to enlarge (a hole) to a precise diameter with a cutting tool within the hole, by rotating either the tool or the work.

5. to force (an opening), as through a crowd, by persistent forward thrusting (usually followed by through orinto ); to force or make (a passage).

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verb (used without object)

bored, boring

1. to make a hole in a solid substance with a rotary cutting instrument.

2. Machinery. to enlarge a hole to a precise diameter.

3. (of a substance) to admit of being bored.

   Certain types of steel do not bore well.

noun

1. a hole made or enlarged by boring.

2. the inside diameter of a hole, tube, or hollow cylindrical or conical object or device, such as a bushing or bearing, engine cylinder, musical wind instrument, or barrel of a gun.

   Synonyms:

   caliber

bore ³ American  

[bawr, bohr] / bɔr, boʊr /

noun

1. an abrupt rise of tidal water moving rapidly inland from the mouth of an estuary.

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bore ⁴ American  

[bawr, bohr] / bɔr, boʊr /

verb

1. simple past tense of bear.

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bore ¹ British  

/ bɔː /

noun

1. a high steep-fronted wave moving up a narrow estuary, caused by the tide

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bore ² British  

/ bɔː /

verb

1. to produce (a hole) in (a material) by use of a drill, auger, or other cutting tool

2. to increase the diameter of (a hole), as by an internal turning operation on a lathe or similar machine

3. (tr) to produce (a hole in the ground, tunnel, mine shaft, etc) by digging, drilling, cutting, etc

4. informal (intr) (of a horse or athlete in a race) to push other competitors, esp in order to try to get them out of the way

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noun

1. a hole or tunnel in the ground, esp one drilled in search of minerals, oil, etc

2. 1. a circular hole in a material produced by drilling, turning, or drawing

   2. the diameter of such a hole

3. 1. the hollow part of a tube or cylinder, esp of a gun barrel

   2. the diameter of such a hollow part; calibre

4. an artesian well

bore ³ British  

/ bɔː /

verb

1. (tr) to tire or make weary by being dull, repetitious, or uninteresting

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noun

1. a dull, repetitious, or uninteresting person, activity, or state

bore ⁴ British  

/ bɔː /

verb

1. the past tense of bear 1

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bore Scientific  

/ bôr /

1. In fluid mechanics, a jump in the level of moving water, generally propagating in the opposite direction to the current. Strong ocean tides can cause bores to propagate up rivers.

2. 1. The white, shallow portion of a wave after it breaks. The bore carries ocean water onto the beach.

   2. A tidal wave caused by the surge of a flood tide upstream in a narrowing estuary or by colliding tidal currents.

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Other Word Forms

• borable
  adjective
• boreable
  adjective
• bored
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of bore¹

First recorded in 1760–70; of uncertain origin

Origin of bore²

First recorded before 900; Middle English bor(i)en, Old English borian; cognate with Old High German borōn, German bohren, Old Norse bora, Latin forāre

Origin of bore³

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English bare “a wave, billow,” from Old Norse bāra

Explanation

If your friends fall asleep every time you open your mouth, you might be a bore — someone who makes the people around them bored. In 1738, Voltaire wisely wrote, “The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.” But the word bore is less boring than you think, since it can function as both noun and verb. You can bore a hole into something by drilling through it with a tool, and you can also bore people by being excessively dull, repetitive, or tedious to be around. And don't forget the bore of a needle or gun barrel, which is the same as its diameter.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bore bored boring

At the beginning of the year, the rotation bore the brunt of the injury bug, with left-hander Blake Snell and right-hander Tyler Glasnow missing months of the season.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

The court said "both sides bore equal responsibility for the breakdown of the marriage" and therefore granted the divorce but rejected Lee's claim for damages, she added.

From Barron's ● Sep. 9, 2026

While in the field, we encountered bore holes from bauxite mining exploration.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 28, 2026

To some, the 2008 financial crisis bore out White’s thinking.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

The notion that the cascading events in France bore any relation to the American Revolution struck Adams as outright lunacy.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

My gaze drifted to the bartenders, who seemed bored, waiting for the evening rush.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

"If he was on that stage, everybody liked him and he just threw darts, I think I'd get bored of watching him," Holden said.

From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026

“How much do you want to hang out with your mate? I got bored of being Dhani Harrison anyway — I like being Dragonflies now.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026

When bankers are deciding which students to do networking calls with, he said, they’re thinking, “If I agree to a call with this kid, am I going to be bored to death?”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026

On long runs he would become bored and when we least expected it he would reach across the gangline and snort wind into the ear of the dog next to him.

From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen

And while there are certainly amateurish or off-putting presentations—and, arguably worse, downright boring ones—there’s plenty to uncover.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

The action rewinds from Gretta and Dan’s initial meeting at the bar, and later fast–forwards to speed up some of the more boring bits of the album-writing process.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026

Over the same period, boring old mutual funds have gotten cheaper.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

It was part of Sir Keir Starmer's strategy to try to take on boring reforms and offer markets stability in a bid to lower borrowing costs.

From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026

Tell him it was boring but mostly treacherous.

From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Related Words

• annoy
• bother
• exhaust
• fatigue
• irk
• irritate
• jade
• tire
• worry