What does "wear" mean?
Wear: To carry or bear upon the person; to bear upon one's self, as an article of clothing, decoration, warfare, bondage, etc.; to have appendant to one's body; to have on; as, to wear a coat; to wear a shackle. What compass will you wear your farthingale Shak. On her white breast a sparkling cross swore, Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore. Pope.
Additional senses
- 2.To have or exhibit an appearance of, as an aspect or manner; to bear; as, she wears a smile on her countenance. "He wears the rose of youth upon him." Shak. His innocent gestures wear A meaning half divine. Keble.
- 3.To use up by carrying or having upon one's self; hence, to consume by use; to waste; to use up; as, to wear clothes rapidly.
- 4.To impair, waste, or diminish, by continual attrition, scraping, percussion, on the like; to consume gradually; to cause to lower or disappear; to spend. That wicked wight his days doth wear. Spenser. The waters wear the stones. Job xiv.
- 5.5. To cause or make by friction or wasting; as, to wear a channel; to wear a hole.
- 6.To form or shape by, or as by, attrition. Trials wear us into a liking of what, possibly, in the first essay, displeased us. Locke. To wear away, to consume; to impair, diminish, or destroy, by gradual attrition or decay. -- To wear off, to diminish or remove by attrition or slow decay; as, to wear off the nap of cloth. -- To wear on or upon, to wear. [Obs.] "[I] weared upon my gay scarlet gites [gowns.]" Chaucer. -- To wear out. (a) To consume, or render useless, by attrition or decay; as, to wear out a coat or a book. (b) To consume tediously. "To wear out miserable days." Milton. (c) To harass; to tire. "[He] shall wear out the saints of the Most High." Dan vii.
- 7.(d) To waste the strength of; as, an old man worn out in military service. -- To wear the breeches. See under Breeches. [Colloq.]
- 8.To endure or suffer use; to last under employment; to bear the consequences of use, as waste, consumption, or attrition; as, a coat wears well or ill; -- hence, sometimes applied to character, qualifications, etc.; as, a man wears well as an acquaintance.
- 9.To be wasted, consumed, or diminished, by being used; to suffer injury, loss, or extinction by use or time; to decay, or be spent, gradually. "Thus wore out night." Milton. Away, I say; time wears. Shak. Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou and this people that is with thee. Ex. xviii.
- 10.His stock of money began to wear very low. Sir W. Scott. The family . . . wore out in the earlier part of the century. Beaconsfield. To wear off, to pass away by degrees; as, the follies of youth wear off with age. -- To wear on, to pass on; as, time wears on. G. Eliot. -- To wear weary, to become weary, as by wear, long occupation, tedious employment, etc.
- 11.The act of wearing, or the state of being worn; consumption by use; diminution by friction; as, the wear of a garment.
- 12.The thing worn; style of dress; the fashion. Motley wear. Shak. Wear and tear, the loss by wearing, as of machinery in use; the loss or injury to which anything is subjected by use, accident, etc.
- 13.A dam in a river to stop and raise the water, for the purpose of conducting it to a mill, forming a fish pond, or the like.
- 14.A fence of stakes, brushwood, or the like, set in a stream, tideway, or inlet of the sea, for taking fish.
- 15.A long notch with a horizontal edge, as in the top of a vertical plate or plank, through which water flows, -- used in measuring the quantity of flowing water.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00