shore
UK /ʃɔː/ · US /ʃɔɹ/ noun, verb, proper noun
Also a form of shear
Forms shores shoring shored
- noun Land adjoining a non-flowing body of water, such as an ocean, lake or pond. “lake shore; bay shore; gulf shore; island shore; mainland shore; river shore; estuary shore; pond shore; sandy shore; rocky shore”
- noun (from the perspective of one on a body of water) Land, usually near a port. “The seamen were serving on shore instead of on ships.”
- verb (obsolete, intransitive) To arrive at the shore
- verb (obsolete, transitive) To put ashore.
- noun A prop or strut supporting some structure or weight above it. “The shores stayed upright during the earthquake.”
- verb Not followed by up: to provide (something) with support.
- verb Usually followed by up: to reinforce (something at risk of failure). “My family shored me up after I failed the GED.”
- noun (obsolete except Scotland) A sewer.
- verb To threaten or warn unpleasant consequences (for someone); (sometimes) to threaten or warn off or scare away.
- verb (of weather, clouds, etc) To threaten (to rain).
- verb To offer or present (someone something).
- proper noun A topographic surname from Middle English.
- proper noun A suburb of Littleborough, Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, Greater Manchester (OS grid ref SD9216).
- proper noun A hamlet near Cornholme in Todmorden parish, Calderdale borough, West Yorkshire (OS grid ref SD9126).
Synonyms
buttress reinforce strengthen support bolster prop up sheared shoring land set ashore prop shore up
Etymology
From Middle English schore, from Old English *sċora (attested as sċor- in placenames), from Proto-Germanic *skurô (“rugged rock, cliff, high rocky shore”). Possibly related to Old English sċieran (“to cut”), which survives today as English shear.
Cognate with Middle Dutch scorre (“land washed by the sea”), Middle Low German schor (“shore, coast, headland”), Middle High German schorre ("rocky crag, high rocky shore"; > German Schorre, Schorren (“towering rock, crag”)), and Limburgish sjaor (“riverbank”). Maybe connected with Norwegian Bokmål skjær.
From Late Middle English shore (“a prop, a support”) [and other forms], from Middle Dutch schore, schare (“a prop, a stay”) (modern Dutch schoor), and Middle Low German schōre, schāre (“a prop, a stay; barrier; stockade”) (compare Old Norse skorða (“a prop, a stay”) (Norwegian skor, skorda)); further etymology unknown.
From Late Middle English shoren (“to prop, to support”) [and other forms], from Middle English shore (“a prop, a support”) (see etymology 2) + -en (suffix forming the infinitive form of verbs); compare Middle Dutch schooren (“to prop up, support”) and Middle Low German schore (“to shovel; to sweep”).
Originally common-shore.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A sewer. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]
- noun A prop, as a timber, placed as a brace or support against the side of a building or other structure; a prop placed beneath anything, as a beam, to prevent it from sinking or sagging. [Written also shoar.]
- verb To support by a shore or shores; to prop; --usually with up; as, to shore up a building.
- noun The coast or land adjacent to a large body of water, as an ocean, lake, or large river.
Etymology [OE. schore; akin to LG. schore, D. schoor, OD. schoore, Icel. skor, and perhaps to E. shear, as being a piece cut off.]
Etymology [OE. schoren. See Shore a prop.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “shore”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details