To Bear

1. (transitive) To support or sustain; to hold up.
2. (transitive) To carry something.
3. (transitive) To be equipped with (something).
4. (transitive) To wear or display.
5. (transitive, with witness) To declare as testimony.
6. (transitive, intransitive) To put up with something; to tolerate.
7. (transitive) To give birth to someone or something (may take the father of the direct object as an indirect object).
8. (transitive, intransitive) To produce or yield something, such as fruit or crops.
9. (intransitive) To be, or head, in a specific direction or azimuth (from somewhere).
10. (intransitive) To suffer, as in carrying a burden.
11. (intransitive) To endure with patience; to be patient.
12. (intransitive, usually with on, upon, or against) To press.
13. (intransitive, military, usually with on or upon) Of a weapon, to be aimed at an enemy or other target.
14. (intransitive, figuratively) To take effect; to have influence or force; to be relevant.
15. (transitive) To have a certain meaning, intent, or effect.
16. (transitive, obsolete) To conduct; to bring (a person).
17. (transitive) To possess and use (power, etc.); to exercise.
18. (transitive) To possess mentally; to carry or hold in the mind; to entertain; to harbor.
19. (transitive, obsolete) To gain or win.
20. (transitive) To sustain, or be answerable for (blame, expense, responsibility, etc.).
21. (transitive) To carry on, or maintain; to have.
22. (transitive) To admit or be capable of (a meaning); to suffer or sustain without violence, injury, or change.
23. (reflexive, transitive) To behave or conduct (oneself).
24. (transitive) To afford; to be (something) to; to supply with.
25. (transitive) To warrant, justify the need for.

Usage notesEdit

• The past participle of bear is usually borne:
  • He could not have borne that load.
  • She had borne five children.
  • This is not to be borne!
• However, when bear means "to give birth to" (literally or figuratively), the passive past participle is born:
  • She was born on May 3.
  • Born three years earlier, he was the eldest of his siblings.
  • "The idea to create [the Blue Ridge Parkway] was born in the travail of the Great Depression […] ." (Tim Pegram, The Blue Ridge Parkway by Foot: A Park Ranger's Memoir, →ISBN, 2007, page 1)
• Both spellings are used in the construction born(e) to someone (as a child):
  • He was born(e) to Mr. Smith.
  • She was born(e) to the most powerful family in the city.
  • "[M]y father was borne to a Swedish mother and a Norwegian father, both devout Lutherans." (David Ross, Good Morning Corfu: Living Abroad Against All Odds, →ISBN, 2009)

SynonymsEdit

• (to put up with something): brook, endure; See also Thesaurus:tolerate