wear
Meanings
- To have on:
- To carry or have equipped on or about one's body, as an item of clothing, equipment, decoration, perfume, etc.
- To have or carry on one's person habitually, consistently; or, to maintain in a particular fashion or manner.
- To bear or display in one's aspect or appearance.
- To erode:
- To eat away at, erode, diminish, or consume gradually; to cause a gradual deterioration in; to produce (some change) through attrition, exposure, or constant use.
- To undergo gradual deterioration; become impaired; be reduced or consumed gradually due to any continued process, activity, or use.
- To exhaust, fatigue, expend, or weary.
- (in the phrase "wearing on (someone)") To cause annoyance, irritation, fatigue, or weariness near the point of an exhaustion of patience.
- To endure:
- To overcome one's reluctance and endure a (previously specified) situation.
- To last or remain durable under hard use or over time; to retain usefulness, value, or desirable qualities under any continued strain or long period of time; sometimes said of a person, regarding the quality of being easy or difficult to tolerate.
- Clothing.
- Damage to the appearance and/or strength of an item caused by use over time.
- Fashion.
- Wearing.
- To guard; watch; keep watch, especially from entry or invasion.
- To defend; protect.
- To ward off; prevent from approaching or entering; drive off; repel.
- To conduct or guide with care or caution, as into a fold or place of safety.
- Dated form of weir.
- A river in the counties of County Durham and Tyne and Wear, north east England. The cities of Durham and Sunderland are situated upon its grand banks.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *wes- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *woséyeti Proto-Germanic *wazjaną Proto-West Germanic *waʀjan Old English werian Middle English weren English wear Inherited from Middle English weren, werien, from Old English werian (“to clothe, cover over; put on, wear, use; stock (land)”), from Proto-West Germanic *waʀjan, from Proto-Germanic *wazjaną (“to clothe”), from Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“to dress, put on (clothes)”). Cognate to Sanskrit वस्ते (váste), Ancient Greek ἕννυμι (hénnumi, “put on”), Latin vestis (“garment”) (English vest), Albanian vesh (“dress up, wear”), Tocharian B wäs-, Old Armenian զգենում (zgenum), Welsh gwisgo, Hittite 𒉿𒀸- (waš-). Originally a weak verb (i.e. with a past tense in -ed), it became irregular during the Middle English period by analogy with verbs like beren (whence bear) and teren (whence tear).