bear with

British

verb

(intr, preposition) to be patient with

bear with me while I tell you my story

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

bear with Idioms

Put up with, make allowance for, as in He'll just have to bear with them until they decide. Nicholas Udall used this term in Ralph Roister Doister (c. 1553): “The heart of a man should more honour win by bearing with a woman.” It may also be used as an imperative, as in Bear with me—I'm getting to the point.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

bear with

He knew it was a bear, with pages and pages of lines, so he told her he’d have a teleprompter on set.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2026

When AFP met Hangzhou Robot School's Wuji -- a customised Unitree model -- it asked visitors to bear with it as it showed them around the school's reception.

From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026

New toy: Lotso, a stuffed bear with abandonment issues.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 17, 2026

We may be a little rusty, so bear with us.

From Slate ● Jan. 10, 2026

“Down home there’s a vile breed of snake called a hoop snake. Not only can it outrun a racehorse, it’s been known to kill a fully grown bear with one bite!”

From "Elijah of Buxton" by Christopher Paul Curtis

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023