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• wear
  wear

  verb (used with object)

  to carry or have on the body or about the person as a covering, equipment, ornament, or the like.
• Wear
  Wear

  noun

  a river in NE England, rising in NW Durham and flowing southeast then northeast to the North Sea at Sunderland. Length: 105 km (65 miles)

wear

American  

[wair] / wɛər /

verb (used with object)

• wears,
  present (3rd person singular)
• wore,
  past
• worn,
  past participle
• wearing
  present participle

1. to carry or have on the body or about the person as a covering, equipment, ornament, or the like.

   to wear a coat;

   to wear a saber;

   to wear a disguise.

2. to have or use on the person habitually.

   to wear a wig.

3. to bear or have in one's aspect or appearance.

   to wear a smile;

   to wear an air of triumph.

4. to cause (garments, linens, etc.) to deteriorate or change by wear.

   Hard use has worn these gloves.

5. to impair, deteriorate, or consume gradually by use or any continued process.

   Long illness had worn the bloom from her cheeks.

6. to waste or diminish gradually by rubbing, scraping, washing, etc..

   The waves have worn these rocks.

7. to make (a hole, channel, way, etc.) by such action.

8. to bring about or cause a specified condition in (a person or thing) by use, deterioration, or gradual change.

   You'll wear that outfit to rags if you don't take better care of it.

   Years of hard labor had worn him to a shadow.

9. to weary; fatigue; exhaust.

   Toil and care soon wear the spirit.

10. to pass (time) gradually or tediously (usually followed by away orout ).

    We wore the afternoon away in arguing.

11. Nautical. to bring (a vessel) on another tack by turning until the wind is on the stern.

12. British Dialect. to gather and herd (sheep or cattle) to a pen or pasture.

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verb (used without object)

• wears,
  present (3rd person singular)
• wore,
  past
• worn,
  past participle
• wearing
  present participle

1. to undergo gradual impairment, diminution, reduction, etc., from wear, use, attrition, or other causes (often followed by away, down, out, oroff ).

2. to retain shape, color, usefulness, value, etc., under wear, use, or any continued strain.

   a strong material that will wear;

   colors that wear well.

3. (of time) to pass, especially slowly or tediously (often followed by on oraway ).

   As the day wore on, we had less and less to talk about.

4. to have the quality of being easy or difficult to tolerate, especially after a relatively long association.

   It's hard to get to know him, but he wears well.

5. Nautical. (of a vessel) to come round on another tack by turning away from the wind.

6. Obsolete. to be commonly worn; to be in fashion.

noun

1. the act of wearing; use, as of a garment.

   articles for winter wear;

   I've had a lot of wear out of this coat.

   I had to throw away the shirt after only three wears.

2. the state of being worn, as on the person.

3. clothing or other articles for wearing; especially when fashionable or appropriate for a particular function (often used in combination).

   travel wear;

   sportswear.

4. gradual impairment, wasting, diminution, etc., as from use.

   The carpet shows wear.

5. the quality of resisting deterioration with use; durability.

verb phrase

1. wear out. see wear out.

2. wear off to diminish slowly or gradually or to diminish in effect; disappear.

   The drug began to wear off.

3. wear down

   1. to reduce or impair by long wearing.

      to wear down the heels of one's shoes.

   2. to weary; tire.

      His constant talking wears me down.

   3. to prevail by persistence; overcome.

      to wear down the opposition.

idioms

1. wear thin,

   1. to diminish; weaken.

      My patience is wearing thin.

   2. to become less appealing, interesting, tolerable, etc..

      childish antics that soon wore thin.

wear ¹ British  

/ wɛə /

verb

1. (tr) to carry or have (a garment, etc) on one's person as clothing, ornament, etc

2. (tr) to carry or have on one's person habitually

   she wears a lot of red

3. (tr) to have in one's aspect

   to wear a smile

4. (tr) to display, show, or fly

   a ship wears its colours

5. to deteriorate or cause to deteriorate by constant use or action

6. to produce or be produced by constant rubbing, scraping, etc

   to wear a hole in one's trousers

7. to bring or be brought to a specified condition by constant use or action

   to wear a tyre to shreds

8. (intr) to submit to constant use or action in a specified way

   his suit wears well

9. (tr) to harass or weaken

10. (of time) to pass or be passed slowly

11. slang (tr) to accept

    Larry won't wear that argument

12. to change the tack of a sailing vessel, esp a square-rigger, by coming about so that the wind passes astern

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noun

1. the act of wearing or state of being worn

2. 1. anything designed to be worn

      leisure wear

   2. ( in combination )

      nightwear

3. deterioration from constant or normal use or action

4. the quality of resisting the effects of constant use

Wear ² British  

/ wɪə /

noun

1. a river in NE England, rising in NW Durham and flowing southeast then northeast to the North Sea at Sunderland. Length: 105 km (65 miles)

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wear ³ British  

/ wɛə /

verb

1. nautical to tack by gybing instead of by going through stays

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wear More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing wear

• hair shirt, wear a
• if the shoe fits, wear it
• none the worse for (wear)
• worse for wear

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• wearer
  noun
• rewear
  verb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• wearing
  present
• worn
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• wear
  simple
• wears
  simple
• have worn
  perfect
• has worn
  perfect
• am wearing
  progressive
• are wearing
  progressive
• is wearing
  progressive
• have been wearing
  perfect progressive
• has been wearing
  perfect progressive

Past

• wore
  simple
• had worn
  perfect
• was wearing
  progressive
• were wearing
  progressive
• had been wearing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will wear
  simple
• will have worn
  perfect
• will be wearing
  progressive
• will have been wearing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of wear

First recorded before 900; (verb) Middle English weren “to have (clothes) on the body, waste, damage, suffer waste or damage,” Old English werian; cognate with Old Norse verja, Gothic wasjan “to clothe”; (noun) late Middle English were “act of carrying on the body,” derivative of the verb; akin to Latin vestis clothing ( see vest)

Explanation

To wear means to clothe, or be covered by. You wear suits to interviews and sweats to the gym. Wear is used to talk about the things we wear on our body, like clothes or jewelry. We even say that people wear their feelings. If someone tells you you’re wearing your heart on your sleeve, it’s totally obvious what you’re feeling. We also use wear to talk about deterioration over time. If you walk a lot, you will wear out your shoes faster. If you chatter on and on, your listener’s patience will wear thin.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wear Wear wears wore worn wearing

Many wear balaclavas as they patrol the city centre streets.

From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026

Conrad: I’d come up with something like the scratchy safety vests they make you wear when you go fishing on a boat.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026

But she also noted that Generation Z was pairing them with running shorts and otherwise finding new ways to wear them.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026

What do you think is acceptable to wear to work?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

“I’ll wear these. What do you think of that sweater I tossed you?”

From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam

The ancestral home of George Washington's family - Washington Old Hall, Tyne and Wear - is just one such location, where local young people are set to read from the document on 4 July itself.

From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026

According to Women’s Wear Daily, Emma Chamberlain’s Met Gala dress took 40 hours to paint and four days to dry.

From Salon ● May 5, 2026

Wear ankle-high boots, thick socks, and loose-fitting pants.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 23, 2026

His early movies, including “Good Guys Wear Black” and “A Force of One,” began to establish his credentials.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026

“Keep it, Lupita. Wear it. Look pretty in it. You will only be young and slim one time in your life.”

From "Lupita Mañana" by Patricia Beatty

But the Venn diagram of people who will love Niles the crocodile and those who care what shoes Pete Davidson wears isn’t a circle.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

Is there a dream of a future project in which he wears just one hat?

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026

This week, the leader of our second-most-popular political party could be unseated in an election by a man who wears a floor-length cape and a bin over his head.

From Slate ● Aug. 12, 2026

Zainab, who is Muslim and wears a hijab, is also often one of the only people covering her hair at premieres, but she says finding ways to incorporate modest wear is part of the fun.

From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026

"That means it could be Nadine's! She wears barrettes."

From "The Cinderella Ballet Mystery: Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew, #4" by Carolyn Keene

A third wore a “Scream” mask that featured the colors of the American flag.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026

She said her grandfather died 10 years ago and her nan had happened to take off the gold wedding ring she wore, about half an hour before the fire.

From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026

However, it was understandable that he faded as the match wore on, given he had trained for less than a week since returning from holiday before his 62-minute outing.

From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026

The Tag Heuer Monaco is an interesting relic of Art Deco design if it isn’t also the watch Steve McQueen wore in “Le Mans.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

She wore a homemade “Darlene” button every day, and she brought in brownies for lunch two days in a row.

From "Firegirl" by Tony Abbott

But as the conflict has worn on, and Tehran has asserted control it didn’t have before over global energy flows in the strait, his priorities appear to have shifted.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026

Wodehouse caper: “Jacqui Cutler trudged into her expansive kitchen, looking every bit as worn out and miserable as someone who had spent the morning digging potatoes, which she most certainly had not.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

Damien Pickett, DJ’s father, told Nola.com on Thursday that his son has worn No. 5 “his whole life” and has the number tattooed on his left arm.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026

"I had a long touchline in Saudi Arabia, so I think the GPS would be quite high if I had worn it!"

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026

Torak was nearly worn out; he’d never have had the strength to start one afresh.

From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver

I feel like I should be typing this column while wearing a Hazmat suit.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

Analysts had anticipated a win for Farage but underestimated the appeal of the self-styled "intergalactic space warrior" from planet Sigma IX, who campaigns wearing a rubbish bin on his head.

From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026

Surveillance is starting to feel ubiquitous, between online bots tracking our every move to cameras everywhere, including the faces of other people wearing AI glasses.

From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2026

Just inside the door, there was a flimsy mannequin with the face of a much younger, slimmer Trump, wearing a red “Trump 2028” hat, a dark suit, and a signature red tie.

From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026

I supposed seeing a girl my age wearing a cheongsam on a Tuesday morning was cause to raise an eyebrow, even in our neighborhood.

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu

Related Words

• bear
• carry
• cover
• display
• don
• get into
• get on
• put on
• show
• slip on
• sport
• wrap