Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To cause (a liquid or granular solid) to stream or flow, as from a container.
  • intransitive verb To pour a liquid or particles into (a container).
  • intransitive verb To empty (a container) of a liquid or granular solid.
  • intransitive verb To send forth, produce, express, or utter copiously, as if in a stream or flood.
  • intransitive verb To stream or flow continuously or profusely.
  • intransitive verb To rain hard or heavily.
  • intransitive verb To pass or proceed in large numbers or quantity.
  • intransitive verb To serve a beverage, such as tea or coffee, to a gathering.
  • noun A pouring or flowing forth, especially a downpour of rain.
  • idiom (pour it on) To move or perform an activity at maximum speed or intensity.
  • idiom (pour it on) To speak or express oneself continuously or elaborately.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To cause to flow or stream, as a liquid or granular substance, either out of a vessel or into one; discharge in a stream: as, to pour out wine; to pour in salt or sand.
  • To cause to flow or fall in a succession of streams or drops; rain.
  • To send forth as in a stream; discharge; emit; send forth in profusion or as in a flood, as words.
  • Hence To shed; expend: as, to pour out one's blood.
  • To flow; issue forth in a stream: as, the water poured over the rocks.
  • To fall, as a torrent of rain; rain hard.
  • To rush on as in a stream; come forth in great numbers.
  • To spread; become diffused.
  • noun Continuous motion as of a stream; flow.
  • noun A heavy fall of rain; a downpour.
  • noun A Middle English form of power.
  • A Middle English form of poor.
  • A Middle English form of pore.
  • noun In founding: the quantity of material or molten metal poured from one charging of a cupola;
  • noun the act or operation of pouring molten metal into a mold.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Poor.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To pore.
  • intransitive verb To flow, pass, or issue in a stream, or as a stream; to fall continuously and abundantly
  • transitive verb To cause to flow in a stream, as a liquid or anything flowing like a liquid, either out of a vessel or into it
  • transitive verb To send forth as in a stream or a flood; to emit; to let escape freely or wholly.
  • transitive verb To send forth from, as in a stream; to discharge uninterruptedly.
  • noun colloq. A stream, or something like a stream; a flood.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To cause to flow in a stream, as a liquid or anything flowing like a liquid, either out of a vessel or into it
  • verb transitive To send forth as in a stream or a flood; to emit; to let escape freely or wholly.
  • verb transitive To send forth from, as in a stream; to discharge uninterruptedly.
  • verb intransitive To flow, pass or issue in or as a stream; to fall continuously and abundantly; as, the rain pours.
  • noun The act of pouring.
  • noun Something, or an amount, poured.
  • noun colloquial A stream, or something like a stream; especially a flood of precipitation.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb cause to run
  • verb supply in large amounts or quantities
  • verb move in large numbers
  • verb rain heavily
  • verb flow in a spurt
  • verb pour out

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English pouren, perhaps from Old North French purer, to sift, pour out, from Latin pūrāre, to purify, from pūrus, pure; see peuə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English pouren, pouren ("to pour"). Origin uncertain. Likely of Celtic origin, from Celtic base *purr- (“to jerk, throw (water)”). Akin to Welsh bwrw ("to cast; to strike; to rain"), Scottish Gaelic purr ("to push, thrust, urge, drive"), Irish purraim ("I push, I jerk").

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Examples

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  • I can see what WeirdNet is getting at, but...

    December 20, 2008