blear

American  

[bleer] / blɪər /

verb (used with object)

1. to make dim, as with tears or inflammation.

   a biting wind that bleared the vision.

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adjective

1. (of the eyes) dim from tears.

2. dim; indistinct.

noun

1. a blur; cloudiness; dimness.

   She was concerned about the recent blear in her vision.

blear British  

/ blɪə /

verb

1. (tr) to make (eyes or sight) dim with or as if with tears; blur

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adjective

1. a less common word for bleary

Other Word Forms

• blearedness noun

Etymology

Origin of blear

1250–1300; Middle English bleri, blere (v.), blere (adj.) < ?

Example Sentences

Or that she mothers the future, herself the future to which you begin to resign yourself as your own eyes blear a bit and breaks in the bones take eternity to heal.

From Time Magazine Archive

The jolt of the work was its off-register blear, its bright-crude colors; but more so, his icy message that the whole world was product.

From Time Magazine Archive

Cleavon Little and Judd Hirsch totter convincingly as men whose eyes are blear with glaucoma and cataracts and whose hips are fragile, "like a teacup."

From Time Magazine Archive

The camera seems to eye everything with a cavalier detachment, and the sepia film gives the illusion that everything is seen through a blear of centuries.

From Time Magazine Archive

They blear into a nightmare, the one scarcely distinguishable from the other.

From "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin