bear

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“
With that he hits a frantic blow at the stone; for the bear is a good boxer.

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Definitions (152)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (37)

  1. transitive verb To hold up; support.
  2. transitive verb To carry from one place to another; transport.
  3. transitive verb To carry in the mind; harbor: bear a grudge.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (95)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (5)

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Examples (50)

  • Conservation officer Gord Hitchcock said the bear was at least 10 years old and ... was in poor health. —  THE IRATE NATION
  • Fish and Game officials said it appears the bear was accidentally hit by a vehicle, then someone removed the gall bladder. —  KCRA.com - Local News
  • This bear is an endangered species, so if you adopt the little ... —  xml's Blinklist.com
  • The boat, under the momentum it had received from the oars, was still moving on about as fast as the bear was able to swim Now, Alec," said Big Tom, as the lad took his position in the stern of the boat, "when he tries to run through the shallow water near those rocks, your turn comes. —  Three Boys in the Wild North Land
  • To his horror the bear was at the other end in the fork, and preparing to follow him along the limb He could not go back without meeting the fierce brute in the teeth. —  The Boy Hunters
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

wolf ·  beast ·  cat ·  dragon ·  deer ·  elephant ·  one ·  monster ·  fox ·  pig ·  warrior ·  rat

Used in the same contextWord Family

bear:   bore ·  bearing ·  borne ·  bears
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (6)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English beren, from Old English beran; see bher-1 in Indo-European roots.
  2. Middle English bere, from Old English bera; see bher-2 in Indo-European roots. Sense 3, probably from proverb To sell the bear's skin before catching the bear.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. from Middle English beren (preterit bar, bare, plural bare, bere, beren, past participle boren, rarely born), from Anglo-Saxon beran (preterit bær, plural bǣron, past participle boren) = Old Saxon beran = OFries. bera = Dutch baren = Old High German beran = Icelandic bera = Swedish bära = Danish bære = Goth, bairan, bear (also in comp. Old Saxon giberan = Anglo-Saxon geberan = Old High German geberen, Middle High German gebern, German gebären = Gothic (Moesogothic) gabairan, bear, in Middle High German and G. bring forth), = Latin ferre = Greek φέρειν = Sanskrit √ bhar, bear, carry. A very prolific root in all the languages, both in form and senses. From the Anglo-Saxon come barrow, bier, barm, barn, bairn, birth, burthen, burden, etc.; from the L. fertile, confer, defer, differ, infer, etc., Lucifer, conifer, etc., auriferous, vociferous, etc., and other words in -fer, -ferous; from the Greek semaphore, hydrophore, phosphorous, electrophorus, etc., and other words in -phore, -phorous, etc.
  2. from Middle English bere, from Anglo-Saxon bera = Dutch beer = Low German baar = Old High German bero, Middle High German ber, German bär, masculine, = Icelandic bera, feminine, a bear. Cf. Icelandic Swedish Danish björn, a bear (apparently = Anglo-Saxon beorn, a man, a warrior, orig. a bear?—see bern), an extended form of the same word. Perhaps ult. = Latin ferus, wild, fera, a wild beast: see fierce.
  3. from bear, n., 5.
  4. Also written beer, and archaically bere, from Middle English bere = Low German büre, later G. bühre, a pillow-case.
 

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