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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

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

From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026

"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

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

It remains to be seen if Beijing will step up stimulus to shore up domestic growth in the near term, with policymakers instead focusing on executing existing policies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026

With a small splash, he was in the water, pulling his clock toward the shore.

From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el

Creator and showrunner Katie Dippold began writing the series more than 10 years ago, inspired by her trips as a youth to the Jersey Shore and quaint New England seaside towns.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026

Visible everywhere in Pattaya were the men wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the letters SLG, or Shore Liaison Group.

From BBC ● Sep. 3, 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

After the riders came the men of the Frozen Shore.

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

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

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

Officials with the gas company said they have shored up the facility, including replacing the inner steel tubing on all operating wells and conducting continuous ambient methane monitoring.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2025

The aim was to have the three countries work more closely together on advanced submarines and other emerging technologies, as the U.S. shored up its network of alliances to counter Beijing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2025

They sleep in a once stately Old World suite with the furniture shored up against the walls and chicken feathers clogging the marble sinks and newspapers tacked clumsily across the windows.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the country needs to focus on ending the war and shoring up its crippled economy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026

Born in Jakarta in 1963, Destry holds degrees from the University of Indonesia and Cornell University, and is expected to maintain a balance between shoring up growth and keeping the rupiah stable.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 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

Within weeks, they began streaming onto the Korean Peninsula, shoring up the battered remnants of the South Korean forces and joining the battle against North Korea.

From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau

Related Words

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