boring

adjective

1. causing or marked by boredom: a boring discussion; to have a boring time.

noun

1. Machinery.
   1. the act or process of making or enlarging a hole.
   2. the hole so made.
2. Geology. a cylindrical sample of earth strata obtained by boring a vertical hole.
3. borings, the chips, fragments, or dust produced in boring.

verb (used with object), bored, bor·ing.

1. to weary by dullness, tedious repetition, unwelcome attentions, etc.: The long speech bored me.

noun

2. a dull, tiresome, or uncongenial person.
3. a cause of ennui or petty annoyance: repetitious tasks that are a bore to do.

verb (used with object), bored, bor·ing.

1. to pierce (a solid substance) with some rotary cutting instrument.
2. to make (a hole) by drilling with such an instrument.
3. to form, make, or construct (a tunnel, mine, well, passage, etc.) by hollowing out, cutting through, or removing a core of material: to bore a tunnel through the Alps; to bore an oil well 3000 feet deep.
4. Machinery. to enlarge (a hole) to a precise diameter with a cutting tool within the hole, by rotating either the tool or the work.
5. to force (an opening), as through a crowd, by persistent forward thrusting (usually followed by through or into); to force or make (a passage).

verb (used without object), bored, bor·ing.

6. to make a hole in a solid substance with a rotary cutting instrument.
7. Machinery. to enlarge a hole to a precise diameter.
8. (of a substance) to admit of being bored: Certain types of steel do not bore well.

noun

9. a hole made or enlarged by boring.
10. the inside diameter of a hole, tube, or hollow cylindrical object or device, such as a bushing or bearing, engine cylinder, or barrel of a gun.

verb

1. simple past tense of bear¹.

noun

1. 1. the act or process of making or enlarging a hole
   2. the hole made in this way
2. (often plural) a fragment, particle, chip, etc, produced during boring

adjective

1. dull; repetitious; uninteresting

verb

1. to produce (a hole) in (a material) by use of a drill, auger, or other cutting tool
2. to increase the diameter of (a hole), as by an internal turning operation on a lathe or similar machine
3. (tr) to produce (a hole in the ground, tunnel, mine shaft, etc) by digging, drilling, cutting, etc
4. (intr) informal (of a horse or athlete in a race) to push other competitors, esp in order to try to get them out of the way

noun

5. a hole or tunnel in the ground, esp one drilled in search of minerals, oil, etc
6. 1. a circular hole in a material produced by drilling, turning, or drawing
   2. the diameter of such a hole
7. 1. the hollow part of a tube or cylinder, esp of a gun barrel
   2. the diameter of such a hollow part; calibre
8. Australian an artesian well

verb

1. (tr) to tire or make weary by being dull, repetitious, or uninteresting

noun

2. a dull, repetitious, or uninteresting person, activity, or state

noun

1. a high steep-fronted wave moving up a narrow estuary, caused by the tide

verb

1. the past tense of bear 1

adj.

mid-15c., “action of piercing,” from bore (v.). From 1853 in reference to animals that bore; 1840 in the sense “wearying, causing ennui.”

v.1

Old English borian “to bore through, perforate,” from bor “auger,” from Proto-Germanic *buron (cf. Old Norse bora, Swedish borra, Old High German boron, Middle Dutch boren, German bohren), from PIE root *bher- (2) “to cut with a sharp point, pierce, bore” (cf. Greek pharao “I plow,” Latin forare “to bore, pierce,” Old Church Slavonic barjo “to strike, fight,” Albanian brime “hole”).

The meaning “diameter of a tube” is first recorded 1570s; hence figurative slang full bore (1936) “at maximum speed,” from notion of unchoked carburetor on an engine. Sense of “be tiresome or dull” first attested 1768, a vogue word c.1780-81 according to Grose; possibly a figurative extension of “to move forward slowly and persistently,” as a boring tool does.

v.2

past tense of bear (v.).

n.

thing which causes ennui or annoyance, 1778; of persons by 1812; from bore (v.1).

The secret of being a bore is to tell everything. [Voltaire, “Sept Discours en Vers sur l’Homme,” 1738]

1. In fluid mechanics, a jump in the level of moving water, generally propagating in the opposite direction to the current. Strong ocean tides can cause bores to propagate up rivers.
2. 1. The white, shallow portion of a wave after it breaks. The bore carries ocean water onto the beach.
   2. A tidal wave caused by the surge of a flood tide upstream in a narrowing estuary or by colliding tidal currents.