Forms: Inf. 1 borian, 2 boren, borien, 5 boryn, boore, 6–7 boar(e, 2– bore. Pa. pple. 5 boryn, 7 boared, 2– bored. [Com. Teut.: OE. borian wk. v. is cogn. w. OHG. borôn (MHG. born, mod.G. bohren), Du. boren, ON. bora:—OTeut. *borôn to bore, f. OTeut. *boro-z, whence OE., ON. bor str. masc., an auger, gimlet (see BORE sb.1); f. Aryan root meaning to cut, pierce, whence Lat. forāre to bore, Gr. φάρος a plow, etc. The orig. short o is lengthened by position in ME. and mod.E., as in mod.Ger, and Du. (Some of the latter senses are difficult to account for: 6 may really be a different word.)]
1. trans. To pierce, perforate, make a hole in or through; in mod. use esp. to pierce by means of a rotatory movement like that of an auger or gimlet. Also with adv. through.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, Voc., 121. Termes vel teredo, wyrm þe borað treow.
c. 1150. Gloss., ibid. 550. Terebro, ic bore.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. iii. (1495), 605. Yf almonde trees ben boryd wyth naylles gumme cometh out of them.
c. 1435. Torr. Portugal, 2238. Ffulle of holis it was boryn.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. To Rdr. Who hath … boared the skin through with infinit pores for evacuation.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 59. Curiously can nature weave the Vessels of the Body; nay, and bore them too.
1780. Coxe, Russ. Disc., 334. All the worm-eaten roots are rejected; the remainder are bored through.
1814. Scott, Ld. of Isles, VI. xxiv. The Bruce’s care Had bored the ground with many a pit.
Mod. The wood is apt to split; bore it first for the nails.
† b. To pierce, stab, run through with a weapon; to wound. Obs.
a. 1400. Leg. Rood (1871), 201. His breest is bored with deeþis.
1685. F. Spence, Ho. Medici, 133. He first boar’d Giuliano de Medici with a poigniard.
† c. Phr. To bore (any one’s) ears (in allusion to Exod. xxi. 6): to consign to perpetual slavery. Obs.
[1535. Coverdale, Ex. xxi. 6. Let his master bore [Wyclif 1382 thrail, 1388 perse] him thorow the eare with a botkin.]
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., II. (1851), 176. By their corrupt and servile doctrines boring our eares to an everlasting slavery.
1692. South, 12 Serm. (1697), I. 13. Can any man, that would be faithful to his Reason, yield his Ear to be bored through by his domineering appetites.
¶ Applied in sense ‘to insist upon a hearing,’ ‘to force one to listen’; possibly with reference to Psalm xl. 6 in the Heb.; cf. BORE v.2
a. 1617. P. Bayne, Ephes., 140 (1658). God by afflictions is said to boar the ear.
1622. H. Sydenham, Serm. Sol. Occ., I. (1637), 76. This is enough for an understanding eare without farther boring it.
1642. Sir E. Dering, Sp. on Relig., 95. One of them who jog our elbowes, and boar our … ears with Babylon.
† d. transf. To penetrate, make one’s way through (a crowd); fig. to gain entrance into (the mind).
1622. H. Sydenham, Serm. Sol. Occ., II. (1637), 115. Riddles of eternal generation which can never bore a human intellect.
1714. Gay, Trivia, III. 395 (J.). Consider … what bustling Crouds I bor’d.
e. To bore out, to put or force out (e.g., the eyes) by boring. Obs. or dial.
c. 1400. Test. Love, I. Every teare of mine eyen for greatnesse semed they boren out the ball of my sight.
1660. Fuller, Mixt Contempl. (1841), 239. Petrus de Vineis … whose eyes he had caused to be bored out for some misdemeanour.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 324, ¶ 1. Tipping the Lion … is performed by … boring out the Eyes with their Fingers.
2. trans. To pierce with a cylindrical aperture or cavity; to hollow out evenly (a cylinder, gun, etc.)
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v. Boring, The method of boring alder poles for water-pipes.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 381. After the barrel is bored, and rendered truly cylindrical.
3. absol. and intr. To make a hole (mod. use limited as in 1). Often with through, into, under, or other prep. In Mining, to sink a bore-hole (see BORE sb.1 3 and 6), as to bore for coal, for water.
a. 1225. Leg. Kath., 1924. Swa þat te pikes and te irnene preones se scharpe and se starke borien þurh.
c. 1430. Hymns Virg. (1867), 52. A spere þoruȝ myn herte gan boore.
1535. Coverdale, Judith vi. 26. Cut of his heade and pearsed and bored thorow his temples.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., III. ii. 170. And with a little Pinne Bores through his Castle Walls.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., x. (1856), 72. By cutting and boring [we] succeeded in penetrating it [the ice].
1864. Tennyson, Aylmer’s F., 850. The hedgehog underneath the plantain bores.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 445. The Chinese method of boring with ropes instead of rigid rods.
fig. 1607. Shaks., Timon, IV. iii. 116. Those Milke pappes That through the window Barne [edd. bars] bore at mens eyes.
† b. To obtain entrance by boring. Obs.
1375. Leg. Rood (1871), 139. Men miȝte better ha crepet … þen bored into heuene blis.
c. To advance, push forward, by gradual persistent motion like that of a boring tool; fig. to persevere by slow and laborious means to the attainment of a distant object.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 438. They take their Flight … boring to the West.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, iii. (1880), 77. The bream has a disagreeable knack of boring head down.
1874. Helps, Soc. Press., ii. 23. The ‘great measure’ man has one or two objects respecting which he bores on throughout the greater part of his life.
d. trans. and intr. Of a horse: To thrust the head straight forward.
1731. Bailey, II. [With Horsemen] a horse is said to boar or bore, when he shoots out his nose as high as he can.
1802. C. James, Mil. Dict. (1816), 54/2.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, let. vii. The bit secured between his teeth, and his head bored down betwixt his fore-legs.
4. trans. To produce or make (a hole, passage, tunnel) by boring (mod. use as 1, 3). To bore one’s way: to advance by a boring motion.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 24. Than maye he … bore the holes with his wymble.
1535. Coverdale, 2 Kings xii. 9. Then Ioiada the prest toke a chest, and bored an hole aboue therin.
1635. J. Babington, Pyrotechn., xxiii. 27. Then boare your holes thorow your inch board.
1691. Ray, Creation, II. (1714), 306 (J.). These diminutive Caterpillars are able by degrees to pierce or bore their way into a Tree.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Manch. Strike, x. 110. Boring a hole between two flints in a yard with a rusty pair of scissors.
1853. Phillips, River’s Yorksh., ii. 33. The passage is like a tunnel; it is in fact bored out by the water.
5. To push or thrust as by boring; now esp. in Racing language, to push out of the course.
1677. Lover’s Quarr., 317, in Hazl., E. P. P., II. 266. He bor’d him out of the Saddle fair.
1884. L’pool Mercury, 5 March, 5/1. In the world of racing ‘to bore’ is to push an opponent out of his course.
† 6. To mock, trick, cheat, gull; ? = BOURD v.1 2.
1602. Life T. Cromwell, II. ii. 103. One that hath gulled you, that hath bored you Sir.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., I. i. 128. At this instant He bores me with some tricke.
1622. Fletcher, Span. Curate, IV. v. 43. I am laughed at, scorn’d, Baffel’d and boared, it seems.
