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• shore
  shore

  noun

  the land along the edge of a sea, lake, broad river, etc.
• Shore
  Shore

  noun

  Jane, 1445?–1527, mistress of Edward IV of England.

shore

¹ American  

[shawr, shohr] / ʃɔr, ʃoʊr /

noun

1. 

   the land along the edge of a sea, lake, broad river, etc.

   Synonyms:

   margin, strand

2. some particular country.

   my native shore.

3. land, as opposed to sea or water.

   a marine serving on shore.

4. Law. the space between the ordinary high-water and low-water mark.

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or located on land, especially land along the edge of a body of water.

   a marine on shore duty.

shore ² American  

[shawr, shohr] / ʃɔr, ʃoʊr /

noun

1. a supporting post or beam with auxiliary members, especially one placed obliquely against the side of a building, a ship in drydock, or the like; prop; strut.

   Synonyms:

   stay, buttress, brace

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verb (used with object)

shored, shoring

1. to support by or as if by a shore or shores; prop (usually followed byup ).

   to shore up a roof; government subsidies to shore up falling corn prices.

shore ³ American  

[shawr, shohr] / ʃɔr, ʃoʊr /

verb (used with object)

Scot. and North England.

shored, shoring

1. to threaten (someone).

2. to offer or proffer (something).

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Shore ⁴ American  

[shawr, shohr] / ʃɔr, ʃoʊr /

noun

1. Jane, 1445?–1527, mistress of Edward IV of England.

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shore ¹ British  

/ ʃɔː /

noun

1. the land along the edge of a sea, lake, or wide river

2. 1. land, as opposed to water (esp in the phrase on shore )

   2. ( as modifier )

      shore duty

3. law the tract of coastland lying between the ordinary marks of high and low water

4. (often plural) a country

   his native shores

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verb

1. (tr) to move or drag (a boat) onto a shore

shore ² British  

/ ʃɔː /

noun

1. a prop, post, or beam used to support a wall, building, ship in dry dock, etc

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verb

1. to prop or make safe with or as if with a shore

shore ³ British  

/ ʃɔː /

verb

1. a past tense of shear

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Usage

What is a basic definition of shore? A shore is land that is located along the edge of a body of water. Shore can also be used more generally to mean any land or a particular country. As a verb, shore means to support something. If a certain area of land touches or runs alongside a body of water, it is a shore. For example, a fisherman would stand at a river’s shore while fishing in it. A shore is similar to a coast or a beach. A coast is a shore that specifically meets the ocean. A beach is a part of a shore covered in sand and pebbles.

• Real-life examples: Boats are docked along shores. Many shores have beautiful, sandy beaches. MTV once filmed an infamous reality show on the shore of New Jersey.
• Used in a sentence: Eve liked to watch the deer relax along the shore of the lake. 

Shore is also used generally to mean any land. This sense is often used as a contrast to water, such as when talking about sailing or boating.

• Used in a sentence: When I was in the Coast Guard, I didn’t spend much time on shore.

Shore can also mean a country.

• Used in a sentence: I want to return to my native shore of Wales. 

As a verb, shore means to support or to bolster. In this sense, it is often followed by the word up.

• Real-life examples: A builder might shore up a roof with several posts. You might shore up your essay with quotes from the research you did. A government can shore up the solar energy industry by giving solar panel manufacturers tax breaks.
• Used in a sentence: The president planned to shore up the economy by giving aid to small businesses. 

Related to this sense, shore is used as a noun to mean a beam or post that acts as a support.

• Used in a sentence: We used steel shores to keep the side wall from falling down. 

Synonym Usage

Shore, bank, beach, coast refer to an edge of land abutting on an ocean, lake, or other large body of water. Shore is the general word: The ship reached shore. Bank denotes the land along a river or other watercourse, sometimes steep but often not: The river flows between its banks. Beach refers to sandy or pebbly margins along a shore, especially those made wider at ebb tide: a private beach for bathers. Coast applies only to land along an ocean: the Pacific coast.

Other Word Forms

• shoring
  noun

Etymology

Origin of shore¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English score, Old English scora (recorded only in place names); cognate with Middle Dutch, Middle Low German schore; perhaps akin to shear

Origin of shore²

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English noun shore, score; cognate with Middle Low German, Middle Dutch schore “prop”; the verb is derivative of the noun

Origin of shore³

First recorded in 1400–50; Middle English ( Scots ) schore, of uncertain origin and meaning

Explanation

The land right at the edge of a lake, river, or ocean is called the shore. Even the bravest swimmers will head for the shore when they hear someone yell "Shark!" The verb shore means "prop up or support," so you might shore up a house that's tilting on its foundation or shore up a failing company with an investment of money. The water's-edge shore has a Germanic root that means "cut," and experts believe that the noun shore grew either from a sense of "division between land and water," or possibly "land cut off from the mainland by marshes."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

shore Shore shored shoring

"Prepare immediately for significant inundation in low-lying areas near the shore, including roads underwater and impacts to homes and businesses."

From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026

Netflix will likely have to spend more to shore up engagement, the analysts say.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026

Officials across Southern California are busy working to shore up hillsides and get flood control systems in place before the rains arrive.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026

Osinski and his colleagues flew in by floatplane, but the aircraft could not make it all the way to shore.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026

And then the footsteps march back to the shore, the jetty bouncing above our heads as the soldier steps back off it.

From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler

Council officers have been out visiting premises in the area to explain how the More by the Shore campaign , externalwill work and listen to feedback.

From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026

The accents there are as apt to hail from the South Shore of Long Island as from South Carolina.

From Slate ● Aug. 25, 2026

Business has been humming along, Brian Keeler at renovation company West Shore Homes told MarketWatch.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 1, 2026

The founder, Peter Cancro, had led Jersey Mike’s since launching it with a single Jersey Shore sub shop in 1975.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

I probably knew more than she did about the general layout of the Eastern Shore.

From "Kindred" by Octavia Butler

They’d loved hiking the Great Wall of China and participating in 150-mile bike rides, and had shored up their finances to retire early.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026

Even as its major military capabilities have been all but wiped out, it has shored up its defense through the agile use of cheap drones, mines and other devices.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 2026

The Dodgers shored up the bullpen over the winter, signing three-time all-star Edwin Díaz to a three-year, $69-million contract.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 28, 2026

So, too, the U.S. labor market can be shored up by continued consumer spending, business investment, and policies that promote economic growth.

From Barron's ● Oct. 31, 2025

Dirt from the road itself had been dug and shored up as a wall, blocking the way even further.

From Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack

Iran’s top politicians said the country needs to focus on ending the war and shoring up its crippled economy, pushing back publicly against hard-liners who are taking a more defiant approach in the six-month-old conflict.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026

China presents another dynamic; it has ample refining capacity but government export quotas aimed at shoring up domestic energy security have limited overseas sales of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026

As the company worked on shoring up its manufacturing capacity, a cultural shift was under way that neither Novo nor Lilly predicted.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 5, 2026

Nonetheless, they say, the summer of bad news will force Bass to reset her campaign narrative — including shoring up her support with Eastside Latinos in the wake of the Lineage fire.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2026

In October 1985, the DEA sent Robert Stutman to serve as director of its New York City office and charged him with the responsibility of shoring up public support for the administration’s new war.

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander

Related Words

• bank
• beach
• border
• coast
• riverbank
• sand
• seaboard
• seashore
• waterfront