arrear

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 

View all »
Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

  1. See arear.
  2. Backward; into or toward the rear; back; behind. Forst him back recoyle and reele areare. Spenser, F. Q., VI. iv. 5.
  3. The state of being behind or behindhand: as, his work is in arrear. Spain, though at least a generation in arrear of England, was after our own the first modern European country to attain to … a national dramatic literature. A. W. Ward, Eng. Dram. Lit., Int., xxvii.
2 more from this dictionary »

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples

  • And no one can say that this habitual arrear was a healthy stimulus to the moral wellbeing of the tenant himself, though he felt aggrieved at its being checked. —  The Reminiscences of an Irish Land Agent
  • In spite of working like a horse (or if you prefer it, like an ass), I find myself scandalously in arrear, and I shall get into terrible hot water if I do not clear off some things that have been hanging about me for months and years. —  The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley
  • Johnson, in order to give Mr. Dossie his vote to be a member of this Society, paid up an arrear which had run on for two years. —  Life Of Johnson
  • In this point they knew his strictness so well that they seldom ventured to go into arrear, and never did so with impunity .... —  Richard Lovell Edgeworth
  • Open my letters as usual; you will find the answers a good deal in arrear, which has much vexed me; and besides, I was always stumbling on some stupid nonsense or other! " —  The Memoirs of Napoleon
 

Tags

arrear hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

Arrear has been looked up 151 times, favorited 0 times, listed twice, and commented on 0 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Etymologies (2)

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English also arear, arrere, from Middle English arere, a rere, from Old French arere, ariere, modern F. arrière = Provencal areire, arreire, from Middle Latin ad retro: L. ad, to; retro (later Old French riere), backward: see retro- and rear.
  2. Middle English only in phr. in ariere, in time past; from arrear, adv. The older noun is arrearage, q. v.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »

If you'd like to prod us on getting a pronunciation for this word, sign in (or sign up) and let us know.

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about once a year.

Recent Lookups

raza · card · innuendo · numerus · thrill

Recent Favorites

doxastic · bissextile day · airship · cloud-shadows · ombrophobous

Recent Pronunciations

milosrdenstvi · lichen-covered · futon · sagacity · monoragngocious