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shore

nounverbnounverbverbnounverbadverbadjectiveinterjectioncommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ʃɔː//
  • United States//ʃɔɹ//
  • //ʃo(ː)ɹ//
  • //ʃoə//

Land adjoining a non-flowing body of water, such as an ocean, lake or pond.

noun

  1. 1

    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

    the fruitful shore of muddy Nile

    Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges[…]: or anon we shot into a clearing, with a colored glimpse of the lake and its curving shore far below us.

  2. 2

    Land, usually near a port.

    The seamen were serving on shore instead of on ships.

    The passengers signed up for shore tours.

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.

verb

  1. 1

    obsoleteTo arrive at the shore

    the ship quickened her way, and shot past that rocke, where wee thought shee would have shored.

  2. 2

    obsoleteTo put ashore.

    I will bring these two moles, these blind ones, aboard him: if he think it fit to shore them again

noun

  1. 1

    A prop or strut supporting some structure or weight above it.

    The shores stayed upright during the earthquake.

Etymology

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.

verb

  1. 1

    Not followed by up: to provide (something) with support.

    If houses were present these could be used to conceal the mine opening. As the mine progressed the roof was shored with timbers.

    Sometimes it's easier to laminate the strips one at a time, shoring each in place only long enough for the epoxy to set.

    These are called shored exit wounds. They are characterized by a broad, irregular band of abrasion of the skin around the exit. In such wounds the skin is reinforced, or "shored," by a firm surface at the instant the bullet exits.

    It must provide the same degree of protection offered by a complete shoring system. Shoring Excavations Shallow trenches can be shored using wood sheet piling braced by stringers and rakers

  2. 2

    Usually followed by up: to reinforce (something at risk of failure).

    My family shored me up after I failed the GED.

    The workers were shoring up the dock after part of it fell into the water.

    ... but his caravels were so much worm-eaten and shattered by storms that he could not reach that island, and was forced to run them on shore in a creek on the coast of Jamaica, where he shored them upright with spars

Etymology

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”).

verb

  1. 1

    Also a form of shearsimple past of shear

    Then Frodo stepped up to the great grey net, and hewed it with a wide sweeping stroke[…]. The blue-gleaming blade shore through them like a scythe through grass […].

Etymology

See shear.

noun

  1. 1

    A sewer.

    Emptie olde receptacles, or common-shores of filthe.

    I need not mention the old common-shore of Rome.

Etymology

Originally common-shore.

verb

  1. 1

    archaicTo threaten or warn unpleasant consequences (for someone); (sometimes) to threaten or warn off or scare away.

    The Gleds might pyked her at the dyke, Before the lads wad shored them off her.

    Bess flew till him […] and with her fatal Knife shored she would geld him, For peace that day.

    ... a' the freits that were begun To shore us ill Shall, in the crackin' of a gun, Flee owre the hill.

  2. 2

    archaicTo threaten (to rain).

    For a' our tears and sighs are but in vain: Come, help me up; — yon sooty cloud shores rain.

    […] the cauld win' louder blew, Shorin' o' drift,[…]

  3. 3

    archaicTo offer or present (someone something).

    ... a compliment kindly and decently shored, […]

Etymology

Uncertain. The word is attested in Northern English and Scots; the DSL states that schore "to threaten" is attested before 1400 (a corresponding noun schoyr is attested since 1375: "vith gret schoyr and mannasyng" in Barbour's Bruce), and suggests it might ultimately be related to Old Scots schoir "steep (of a crag)", related to shear. Alternatively, it has been suggested that it might be a variant of score or sure and related to assure.

adverb

  1. 1

    Variant of surearchaicPronunciation spelling of sure.

adjective

  1. 1

    Variant of surearchaicPronunciation spelling of sure.

interjection

  1. 1

    Variant of surearchaicPronunciation spelling of sure.

Forms

plural
shores
comparative
more shore
superlative
most shore
past tense
shored
past participle
shored
present participle
shoring
third person singular
shores
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).