Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To read, study, or examine something carefully and attentively.
  • intransitive verb To meditate deeply; ponder.
  • intransitive verb Archaic To gaze intently; stare.
  • noun A minute opening in tissue, as in the skin of an animal, serving as an outlet for perspiration, or in a plant leaf or stem, serving as a means of absorption and transpiration.
  • noun A space in rock, soil, or unconsolidated sediment that is not occupied by mineral matter and that allows the passage or absorption of fluids.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To gaze earnestly or steadily; look with close and steady attention or application; read or examine anything with steady perseverance: generally followed by on, upon, or over.
  • An obsolete form of pour.
  • An obsolete or dialectal form of poor.
  • noun A small opening or orifice; a hole, aperture, or perforation; a foramen; an opening in general: as, the pores of a sponge.
  • noun One of the small interstices between the particles or molecules of the matter of which a body is composed.
  • noun In botany, a small aperture or hole, as that at the apex of the anthers in certain Ericaceæ; in Pyrenomycetes, same as ostiole; in Hymenomycetes, same as tubulus. See cut under anther.
  • noun Minute openings, in the integument of starfishes, through which project the dermal branchiæ.
  • noun In the Cystoidea, a small opening in the plates of the calyx occasionally present between the mouth and the anus. Also called the ovarian aperture.

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

  • noun One of the minute orifices in an animal or vegetable membrane, for transpiration, absorption, etc.
  • noun A minute opening or passageway; an interstice between the constituent particles or molecules of a body.
  • intransitive verb To look or gaze steadily in reading or studying; to fix the attention; to be absorbed; -- often with on or upon, and now usually with over.

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

  • noun a tiny opening in the skin
  • noun by extension any small opening or interstice, especially one of many or allowing passage of a fluid.
  • verb to study meticulously; to go over again and again.
  • verb to meditate or reflect in a steady way.

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

  • noun any tiny hole admitting passage of a liquid (fluid or gas)
  • noun any small opening in the skin or outer surface of an animal
  • verb direct one's attention on something
  • noun a minute epidermal pore in a leaf or stem through which gases and water vapor can pass

Etymologies

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

[Middle English pouren.]

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

[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin porus, passage, from Greek poros; see per- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English pouren ("to gaze intently, look closely"), from Old English *purian, suggested by Old English spyrian ("to investigate, examine"). Akin to Middle Dutch poren ("to pore, look"), Old English spor ("track, trace, vestige")

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English pouren, from Old French, from Latin porus, from Ancient Greek πόρος (poros, "passage").

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Examples

  • "Pore beggar -- oh pore, _pore_ beggar!" said Alf, leaning in on one side of him, while Pinewood blocked him on the other.

    Traffics and Discoveries Rudyard Kipling 1900

  • Jonathan Mostow: Certainly Blu-Ray has raised the bar for makeup because high-def shows every facial imperfection, skin pore, etc.

    Interview With Jonathan Mostow, Surrogates Director » DVDs Worth Watching 2010

  • Eye-opening prose resulting in pore-cleansing laughs!

    FISH-FILLED SEA • by Tania Hershman 2007

  • First you've got to be very lucky that the passive pore is the right size to be a precusor for the coupling and the whip.

    Combinatorial Dependencies 2007

  • Here on the equator (S'pore is one degree north of the equator), the effects of global warming won't be nearly as severe as they will be, insha'allah, in the US or Europe.

    Americans Confronted With Warm Winters JDsg 2007

  • Because the dimensions of the lipid bilayer and the alpha-hemolysin pore, as well as the required amount of electrical current, are at the nanoscale level, the "single-molecule mass spectrometry" technology may one day be incorporated into "lab-on-a-chip" molecular analyzers and single-strand DNA sequencers.

    DNA Sieve — Nanoscale Pores can be Tiny Analysis Labs | Impact Lab 2007

  • S'pore is filled with stray cats, but instead of letting HDB residents keep the cats that they care for in their flats (cats are frequently fed by compasionate people), the gov't would rather cull those they find.

    Cats JDsg 2004

  • S'pore is filled with stray cats, but instead of letting HDB residents keep the cats that they care for in their flats (cats are frequently fed by compasionate people), the gov't would rather cull those they find.

    Archive 2004-12-01 JDsg 2004

  • The diameter of the pore is so small that it corresponds to that of a single ion (0. 5-0.6 millionths of a millimetre).

    Physiology or Medicine 1991 - Press Release 1991

  • That Scotland bleeds at every pore is true; but let peace be our aim, and we shall heal all her wounds.

    The Scottish Chiefs 1875

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