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.
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
Vivian Jones, Nashville Tennessean, 24 Oct. 2025
The charge of morning photons showering bare skin.
—Rowan Jacobsen, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025
Laura Jackson, Vogue, 22 Oct. 2025
The satiny ensemble featured a cleavage-baring open neckline, short sleeves and a waist-cinching bodice that cascaded into a mermaid skirt.
—Michelle Lee, PEOPLE, 21 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for bare
Cite this Entry
“Bare.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bare. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
bare
1 of 2 adjective
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