Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An obsolete form of wear 1, wear, weir, war, vair.
  • noun See wer.
  • noun Indicative plural and subjunctive singular and plural of was. See was.

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

  • verb obsolete To wear. See 3d wear.
  • noun obsolete A weir. See weir.
  • transitive verb obsolete To guard; to protect.
  • The imperfect indicative plural, and imperfect subjunctive singular and plural, of the verb be. See be.
  • noun obsolete A man.
  • noun obsolete A fine for slaying a man; the money value set upon a man's life; weregild.

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

  • noun archaic man (human male), as in werewolf ("man-wolf").
  • noun obsolete A fine for slaying a man; weregild.
  • noun The collective name for any kind of person that changes into another form under certain conditions, including the werewolf.
  • verb Second-person singular simple past tense indicative of be.
  • verb First-person plural simple past tense indicative of be.
  • verb Second-person plural simple past tense indicative of be.
  • verb Third-person plural simple past tense indicative of be.
  • verb Simple imperfect subjunctive in all persons of be.
  • verb Northern England was.

Etymologies

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

[Middle English were, weren, from Old English wǣre, wǣren, wǣron; see wes- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English wer, from Proto-Germanic *weraz, from Proto-Indo-European *wiHrós (“man”).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English wǣre.

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Examples

  • Atsiko, those books were all published by big houses, so by definition, they *were* ready for publication.

    You're Never Too Young or Too Old Janice Hardy 2010

  • It was July and the hives were full of decanting honey and the _tomeguines _were in full bloom in the fields and on the floor of the pine forests.

    The Devil's Bedpost 2010

  • This straw man argument - evidently based upon whether the detainees were captured on the battlefield - deliberately obscures the fact that they *were* affiliated and thus a part of AQ and/or the Taliban.

    Feeling the strain of that 1-year time limit imposed — showily imposed — on Guantanamo. Ann Althouse 2009

  • They were better when they *were* Apple Computer, but it all went to their heads or some body part after the iPod and iPhone.

    Bad Apple: An Argument Against Buying An iPhone | Lifehacker Australia 2009

  • “What were they thinking?” has become something of a cliche, but honestly, what * were* they thinking?

    The 5 Basic Elements of Good Logo Design Harry 2009

  • Right there on the Duke campus, an awful lot of the people I saw were college-aged, and I realized that these kids, these eighteen-, twenty-year-old kids are the ones who probably starting reading the series ten years ago when they *were* children.

    i survived potterdamerung hth_the_first 2007

  • If you, gentle reader, were to google ray kowalski cock -- not that I'm saying you *would* do that, or question your motives for doing so in any way -- but if you *were* to do that, the first two links to appear would be stories of mine.

    sometimes he'll twitch for no reason, it's just a twitch but it's part of his style hth_the_first 2007

  • My own Germanic-only substitutes for "universal" would be "all-spanning" if cosmic space were not implied from the context, and perhaps "every-worldly" if that meaning *were* implied.

    languagehat.com: UNCLEFTISH BEHOLDING. 2004

  • It was July and the hives were full of decanting honey and the _tomeguines _were in full bloom in the fields and on the floor of the pine forests.

    Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 2003

  • I thought you were keeping in contact and telling me the things you were… because you honestly loved me and needed time to take care of yourself, so you could give us the chance… the same chance I gave you… at some point.

    ugotsoul Diary Entry ugotsoul 2002