bore
B1Neutral to informal when describing a person; technical when referring to drilling/engineering.
Definition
Meaning
To make someone feel weary and uninterested by being dull or tedious.
Also: 1) To drill a hole in something. 2) A person who causes boredom. 3) The hollow interior of a gun barrel or cylinder. 4) A high tidal wave (bore tide).
Linguistics
Semantic Notes
The 'boring person' sense is highly subjective and context-dependent. The 'drill' sense is literal and technical. The word is a homograph with distinct etymologies for the 'drill' and 'tire' meanings.
Dialectal Variation
British vs American Usage
Differences
Minimal. Both use all senses. 'Bore' as a tidal wave is more common in UK contexts (e.g., Severn Bore).
Connotations
Identical. Describing someone as a 'bore' is equally pejorative in both varieties.
Frequency
The 'dull person' sense is slightly more frequent in British English according to corpus data.
Vocabulary
Collocations
Grammar
Valency Patterns
[Subject] bores [Object][Subject] bores [Object] with [Topic][Subject] bores into/through [Object]Vocabulary
Synonyms
Strong
Neutral
Weak
Vocabulary
Antonyms
Phrases
Idioms & Phrases
- “bore the pants off someone”
- “bore someone stiff”
- “like watching paint dry”
Usage
Context Usage
Business
"The quarterly report presentation bored the investors."
Academic
"The lecture bored into the complexities of tectonic shift."
Everyday
"He's a nice guy, but he can be a bit of a bore at parties."
Technical
"The machine bores a precision hole to a tolerance of 0.01mm."
Examples
By Part of Speech
verb
British English
- His long stories bore me rigid.
- They will bore a tunnel under the Channel.
American English
- That movie bored me to tears.
- We need to bore a hole through this concrete wall.
adverb
British English
- He spoke boringly for over an hour.
- The day passed boringly slowly.
American English
- She described the process boringly in detail.
- The time dragged boringly on.
adjective
British English
- The meeting was utterly boring.
- He has a boring job in data entry.
American English
- I find golf kind of boring.
- She left her boring hometown for the city.
Examples
By CEFR Level
- The film was boring.
- He bored a hole in the wood.
- Don't bore me with the details.
- She thought the museum was a bit of a bore.
- His monologue bored the audience into a stupor.
- The engineer specified the bore of the cylinder.
- The committee was bored into submission by the endless procedural debates.
- The glacial meltwater bore a deep gorge through the landscape over millennia.
Learning
Memory Aids
Mnemonic
BORE = Brings On Repetitive Exhaustion. A bore exhausts you by being repetitive.
Conceptual Metaphor
BOREDOM IS A PHYSICAL BURDEN / DRILLING IS PENETRATION.
Watch out
Common Pitfalls
Translation Traps (for Russian speakers)
- Do not confuse with 'бор' (pine forest).
- The verb 'to bore' (drill) is 'сверлить'. The adjective 'boring' (dull) is 'скучный'. They are false friends in Russian.
Common Mistakes
- Using 'bored of' (informal, sometimes criticized) instead of 'bored with' or 'bored by'.
- Confusing 'bore' (past tense of 'bear') with 'bore' (cause boredom).
Practice
Quiz
Which sentence uses 'bore' in the 'drill' sense?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
It is common in informal speech, especially among younger speakers, but 'bored with' or 'bored by' are the traditionally prescribed prepositions and are safer for formal writing.
'Bore' is primarily a verb (to cause boredom) or a noun (a boring person/thing). 'Boring' is the adjective form describing something that causes boredom.
Rarely. In the context of a 'bore tide' (a dramatic tidal wave), it can be a spectacle, but the core meanings related to dullness or drilling are neutral or negative.
It is 'bored'. Be careful: 'bore' is also the past tense of the verb 'to bear' (to carry), which is a different word entirely.