bare
3 of 3archaic past tense of bear
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Usage Note on Bear
There is considerable confusion between the verbs bear and bare. It may help to remember that the verb bare has only one meaning: "to uncover," as in "bare your shoulders" and "a dog baring its teeth." All other uses of the verb are for bear: "bearing children," "the right to bear arms," "bearing up under the stress/weight," "can't bear the thought," "bear south," "it bears repeating."
There is occasional confusion between bear and bare in adjectival uses (as in "he rubbed his bear arms"), but bear is properly a noun and only used like an adjective in the financial phrase bear market. All other uses refer to the state of being uncovered or naked and should therefore be bare: "bare necessities," "bare essentials," "bare arms," "bare bones," "bare-knuckle," and so on.
Did you know?
Usage Note on Bear
There is considerable confusion between the verbs bear and bare. It may help to remember that the verb bare has only one meaning: "to uncover," as in "bare your shoulders" and "a dog baring its teeth." All other uses of the verb are for bear: "bearing children," "the right to bear arms," "bearing up under the stress/weight," "can't bear the thought," "bear south," "it bears repeating."
There is occasional confusion between bear and bare in adjectival uses (as in "he rubbed his bear arms"), but bear is properly a noun and only used like an adjective in the financial phrase bear market. All other uses refer to the state of being uncovered or naked and should therefore be bare: "bare necessities," "bare essentials," "bare arms," "bare bones," "bare-knuckle," and so on.
Synonyms
Examples of bare in a Sentence
David McAninch, Saveur, November 2008
The dining room is warm and comfortable in a quasi-Tuscan-villa style, with bare wood floors, mottled walls, … and a glass room divider etched with images of grapes.
—Colman Andrews, Gourmet, March 2007
A scant two hours after his Derby victory, Monarchos was back in his … stall, beneath a bare bulb, eating carrots from a red bucket.
—Steve Rushin, Sports Illustrated, 14 May 2001
There was a rug in the front room of the house, but the other floors were bare.
Do not let the bare wires touch.
He covered her bare arms with his coat.
He had a glove on his left hand, but his right hand was bare.
The ground was bare where the statue had stood for years.
There was only one bare shelf.
Her office was pretty bare, having only one desk and one chair.
This is the barest room in the house.
He only told me the bare facts about what happened.
Verb
Ed McMahon calls upon the canine coach to help him settle down his aggressive … terrier, which is nice to Ed but bares its teeth at guests.
—TV Guide, 29 Oct.-4 Nov. 2007
You could argue that the very act of conducting a lengthy poll by telephone skews the response pool. What sort of person bares her soul to pollsters for upward of an hour—and during the holiday season yet?
—Katha Pollitt, Nation, 4/11 Aug. 2003
When Eastman called Death in the Afternoon (Hemingway's nonfiction book about bullfighting) "a literary style of wearing false hair on the chest," Hemingway had no other options than to bare his hirsute midsection and duke it out with his rival author in front of their editor, Max Perkins. The common mythology is that Hemingway beat Eastman to a bloody pulp, but Perkins' account had Eastman gaining the upper hand.
—Will Manley, Booklist, 1 Apr. 2001
The better analogy is to bare all on the talk shows in which ordinary people are encouraged to reveal intimate aspects of their private lives.
—Richard A. Posner, New Republic, 21 Aug. 2000
He bared his chest to show the scar.
finally bared the secret that she had kept to herself for so long
Milana Mazaeva, New York Times, 6 Apr. 2024
While you may be tempted to look at the eclipse with your bare eyes, don’t.
—Eleanor Nash, Kansas City Star, 6 Apr. 2024
Though far less explicit than Queen Charlotte, Reign is also significantly sillier; hence its ranking above some of the many royal dramas that show bare butts.
—Judy Berman, TIME, 5 Apr. 2024
In the first shot in her pregnancy reveal post, Michele wore a long, white cardigan that fell open to reveal her bare bump and matching white underwear.
—Jenny Haward, Peoplemag, 5 Apr. 2024
The last solar eclipse was in 2017, and (somewhat famously) then-President Donald Trump stared directly at it bare eyed—a huge health concern.
—Margaux Anbouba, Vogue, 4 Apr. 2024
Either way, her bare nails definitely give the elegant look a fresh touch.
—Emily Tannenbaum, Glamour, 30 Mar. 2024
In a bare room of a cinder block building at its home base in Kaneohe, Hawaii, Marines in the regiment’s command operations center tapped on laptops on portable tables, with plastic sheets taped over the windows.
—Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post, 29 Mar. 2024
Video provided by Sacramento firefighters showed personnel spraying water from ladder trucks to subdue the conflagration as the bare wooden skeleton continued to fall amid heavy flames.
—Ishani Desai, Sacramento Bee, 26 Mar. 2024
Joseph Hudak, Rolling Stone, 21 Mar. 2024
The recall, which includes four gift sets of metallic coated ceramic mugs that bare the Starbucks logo, were sold during the coffee maker’s 2023 holiday season, the agency said.
—Francisco Velasquez, Quartz, 22 Mar. 2024
Those are two nominees who very likely will not be baring chest and will wear shirts.
—Dave Schilling, Los Angeles Times, 8 Mar. 2024
Although Taylor Swift famously bares her soul in her songwriting, she’s historically been guarded about her personal life.
—Janey Tracey, EW.com, 14 Mar. 2024
Jodie Turner-Smith (nearly) bared it all on the red carpet on Oscars night.
—Charlotte Phillipp, Peoplemag, 11 Mar. 2024
If instead West saves two spades and one club, East must bare a black-suit king.
—Frank Stewart, The Mercury News, 10 Mar. 2024
Kelce's mustard blazer and pants, burgundy beanie and striped turtle-neck bared a uncanny resemblance to a Cheesecake Factory takeout bag, the company observed.
—Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY, 22 Feb. 2024
Rosenthal couldn’t bare to leave his friends behind, when there was still so much to accomplish.
—Maëlle Beauget-Uhl, Forbes, 23 Feb. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bare.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Adjective and Verb
Middle English, from Old English bær; akin to Old High German bar naked, Lithuanian basas barefoot
Adjective
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Verb
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above
Phrases Containing bare
Articles Related to bare
Dictionary Entries Near bare
Cite this Entry
“Bare.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bare. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.
Copy Citation
Kids Definition
bare
1 of 2 adjective
More from Merriam-Webster on bare
Nglish: Translation of bare for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of bare for Arabic Speakers
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