Definition of "wear"

wear¹

/wɛə(ɹ)/

verb
third-person singular simple present wears, present participle wearing, simple past wore or (obsolete) ware, past participle worn or (now colloquial and nonstandard) wore or (obsolete) worne
1. (transitive) To carry or have equipped on or about one's body, as an item of clothing, equipment, decoration, etc.
  Quotations
  It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. He wore shepherd's plaid trousers and the swallow-tail coat of the day, with a figured muslin cravat wound about his wide-spread collar.
  1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., page 01
  ‘It's rather like a beautiful Inverness cloak one has inherited. Much too good to hide away, so one wears it instead of an overcoat and pretends it's an amusing new fashion.’
  1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess‎
2. (transitive) To have or carry on one's person habitually, consistently; or, to maintain in a particular fashion or manner.
  Quotations
  It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.
  1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company
3. (transitive) To bear or display in one's aspect or appearance.
  Quotations
  Then the bridegroom came slowly up the walk, wearing a very unbridegroomlike aspect, […]
  1870, Marion Harland, Helen Gardner's Wedding-day, page 139
4. (colloquial, with "it") To overcome one's reluctance and endure a (previously specified) situation.
5. 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.
  Quotations
  And They made the Moon, with his face wrinkled with many mountains and worn with a thousand valleys, to regard with pale eyes the games of the small gods, and to watch throughout the resting time of Māna-Yood-Sushāī; to watch, to regard all things, and be silent.
  1905, [Edward Plunkett,] Lord Dunsany, The Gods of Pegāna‎, London: Elkin Mathews, […]
6. (intransitive, copulative) To undergo gradual deterioration; become impaired; be reduced or consumed gradually due to any continued process, activity, or use.
  Quotations
  His stock of money […] began to wear very low.
  1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […]
  The family that had raised it wore out in the earlier part of this century
  1880, [Benjamin Disraeli], Endymion […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Longmans, Green, and Co.
7. To exhaust, fatigue, expend, or weary.
  Quotations
  Our ſoules, whoſe faculties can comprehendThe wondrous Architecture of the world:And meaſure euery wandring planets courſe,Still climing after knowledge infinite,And alwaies mouing as the reſtles ſpheares,Wils vs to weare our ſelues & neuer reſt, […]
  c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, Act II, scene vii
8. (intransitive) 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.
9. (intransitive, colloquial) (in the phrase "wearing on (someone)") To cause annoyance, irritation, fatigue, or weariness near the point of an exhaustion of patience.
10. (intransitive, of time) To pass slowly, gradually or tediously.
  Quotations
  Away, I say; time wears.
  c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene i]
  Thus wore out night.
  1671, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […]
  That loss is common would not make⁠My own less bitter, rather more:⁠Too common! Never morning woreTo evening, but some heart did break.
  1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], canto VI
11. (nautical) To bring (a sailing vessel) onto the other tack by bringing the wind around the stern (as opposed to tacking when the wind is brought around the bow); to come round on another tack by turning away from the wind. Also written "ware". Past: weared, or wore/worn.
noun
uncountable
1. (in combination) Clothing.
2. Damage to the appearance and/or strength of an item caused by use over time.
  Quotations
  Now, I still think that for this box of matches to have escaped the wear of time for immemorial years was a strange, and for me, a most fortunate thing.
  1895 May 7, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Palace of Green Porcelain”, in The Time Machine: An Invention, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, page 162
3. Fashion.
  Quotations
  Motley's the onely weare.
  c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene vii], page 193, column 1
4. Wearing.
  Quotations
  It is obvious, of course, that a cylinder so applied is not for constant wear, and it is not intended in any way to correct any error of refraction, but is used merely as an exercise for a few minutes at a time at repeated intervals. In case of Oblique Astigmatism the wearing of the correction will frequently fail to give satisfaction when complicated by oblique muscular trouble, […]
  1903, Lionel G. Amsden, Principles and Practices of Refraction: An Elementary Treatise on the Science of Refraction as Applied to “Sight Testing”, page 209
  Prolonged wear of the interceptor body armor outer tactical vest (OTV) is frequently blamed for common complaints of neck and shoulder pain. […] Even if patients improved after a period of light duty and shoulder rehabilitation, many complained of pain after returning to OTV wear when their shoulders again became the focal point of weight distribution.
  2008 November, Sarah D. Thomas, “Measures to Prevent Profiles in Combat Support Commands”, in Army Logistician, volume 40, number 6, page 22
  Softer crystals are best reserved for occasional wear, whereas harder crystals can be worn every day.
  2021, Lauren D’Silva, Crystals: The Guide to Principles, Practices and More (Godsfield Companions), Godsfield

wear²

verb
third-person singular simple present wears, present participle wearing, simple past weared or wore, past participle weared or worn or (obsolete) worne
1. (now chiefly UK dialectal, transitive) To guard; watch; keep watch, especially from entry or invasion.
2. (now chiefly UK dialectal, transitive) To defend; protect.
3. (now chiefly UK dialectal, transitive) To ward off; prevent from approaching or entering; drive off; repel.
4. (now chiefly UK dialectal, transitive) To conduct or guide with care or caution, as into a fold or place of safety.

wear³

noun
plural wears
1. Dated form of weir.

Definition of "wear"

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