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Definition of bear
(Entry 1 of 3)
bear
verb
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borne
also born\ ˈbȯrn
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bearing
Definition of bear (Entry 2 of 3)
Bear
geographical name
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Definition of Bear (Entry 3 of 3)
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Other Words from bear
Noun
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adjective
Synonyms for bear
Synonyms: Noun
beast, chore, headache, job, killer, labor
Synonyms: Verb
birth [chiefly dialect], deliver, drop, have, mother, produce
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Examples of bear in a Sentence
Noun
Traffic in Knoxville, Tennessee, can be a bear anytime, but in late spring the slowdowns on Neyland Drive are often caused by Canada geese. — Joelle Anthony, Audubon, November-December 2004 True, the rally has been around the corner since Memorial Day. But bears have dominated market sentiment for so long since the Federal Reserve Board raised interest rates last February, that traders feel the market is headed for a major tectonic shift … — Anthony Ramirez, New York Times, 19 July 1994 Hikers in the woods are far more likely to wear a bell to deter bears than to take precautions against bees. But bears kill two to seven people in North America annually, bee stings kill 600 to 900. — Allan J. Davison, Chemical & Engineering News, 15 Mar. 1993 a mother bear and her cubs The bears outnumbered the bulls on Wall Street today.Verb
A stone slab bearing 3,000-year-old writing previously unknown to scholars has been found in the Mexican state of Veracruz, and archaeologists say it is an example of the oldest script ever discovered in the Western Hemisphere. — John Noble Wilford, New York Times, 15 Sept. 2006 Large public buildings often bear only a loose resemblance to what was originally in the minds of the architects who designed them. Things get cut back to save money; somebody has second thoughts about the way part of the building will function; it takes so long to get public approval that the original idea starts to seem dated … — Paul Goldberger, New Yorker, 17 Jan. 2002 The most famous work of Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), of course, was purifying milk with the process that now bears his name. — Brendan Miniter, American Enterprise, September/October 1998 In so-called parking schemes, securities aren't carried on the books of the true owner but are temporarily sold to someone else with the understanding that the seller will continue to bear any risk of loss and reap any profits. — James B. Stewart, New Yorker, 8 Mar. 1993 As a science fiction buff, many years ago, I remember being particularly fascinated by tales of genetic surgery. Imagine the surgeon … peering through the electron microscope, repairing the sickle-cell gene and returning the ovum to its mother, who would then bear a normal child. — Richard Novick, New York Times Book Review, 15 Feb. 1987 The sight of Niña already there, snugged down as if she had been at home a month, finished Martín Alonso Pinzón. Older than Columbus, ill from the hardships of the voyage, mortified by his snub from the Sovereigns, he could bear no more. — Samuel Eliot Morison, The European Discovery of America, 1974 a symphony that can bear comparison with Beethoven's best The company agreed to bear the costs. The criminals must bear full responsibility for the deaths of these innocent people. Who will bear the blame for this tragedy?
Recent Examples on the Web: Noun
The Placer County Sheriff’s Office’s video of the rescue shows the deputies carefully opening the lid of the dumpster and placing a ladder inside the box for the bear cub to use. — Kelli Bender, PEOPLE.com, "California Sheriff's Office Helps Bear Family Rescue Cub Trapped in Dumpster," 29 Aug. 2019 Police arrested at least 13 people and seized metal poles, bear spray and other weapons Saturday as hundreds of far-right protesters and anti-fascist counter-demonstrators swarmed downtown Portland, Oregon. — Gillian Flaccus, chicagotribune.com, "Police arrest at least 13 people and seize metal poles, bear spray as right-wing groups and counter-protesters swarm downtown Portland," 17 Aug. 2019 Whether Tagovailoa makes a similar adjustment bears watching. — Rainer Sabin | Rsabin@al.com, al.com, "Will Nick Saban rein in Tua Tagovailoa this season?," 23 July 2019 Items far less dangerous than fireworks—such as bear spray—have caused multiple accidents inside Amazon warehouses, where workers are sometimes required to move and pack hundreds of items an hour. — Louise Matsakis, WIRED, "Why You Still Can’t Buy Fireworks on Amazon," 1 July 2019 French Canadian composer and musician Julien Gauthier died tragically last week while on a camping expedition in Canada’s Northwest Territories after he was mauled to death by a bear who entered his campsite in the middle of the night. — Ashley Boucher, PEOPLE.com, "Composer and Musician Julien Gauthier Dragged from His Tent and Mauled to Death by a Bear," 21 Aug. 2019 Eagles would no longer have their own country, mice were not people with underground houses ready to shape-shift into human hunters, and a curl of ermine hair couldn’t transform into a live ermine and then a bear. — Bathsheba Demuth, The New Yorker, "When the Soviet Union Freed the Arctic from Capitalist Slavery," 15 Aug. 2019 The 3 foot-long creature, which resembles a small bear with a bushy tail, hunts across a vast range. — Emily Holden, WIRED, "3 Animals Hurt By the New Endangered Species Act," 14 Aug. 2019 This is a terrible heuristic if you’re being chased by a bear. — Jonah Goldberg, National Review, "Putting America’s Problems in Perspective," 9 Aug. 2019Recent Examples on the Web: Verb
For his own take on the material, Iannucci chose to go the colorblind route, casting Patel, who was born and raised in London to Gujarati Indian Hindu parents, and filling out his ensemble with a diverse group of actors. — Nigel Smith, PEOPLE.com, "Dev Patel Accidentally 'UFC Elbowed' Tilda Swinton While Making Movie: 'Her Teeth Are Intact'," 7 Sep. 2019 Most of the cost to fortify beaches is borne by local, state and federal taxpayers and managed through the Army Corps of Engineers. — Daniel Cusick, Scientific American, "Dorian Takes A Swipe at Beach Replenishment Projects," 6 Sep. 2019 He was born and raised in the Westbury community on the southwest side of Houston and attended the High School For Performing and Visual Arts. — Adam Coleman, Houston Chronicle, "Houston-area high school football media poll: Week 2," 3 Sep. 2019 Now 25, Jenkins was born in St. Petersburg, Fla., and raised in a less-than-ideal, hardly traditional setting. — Jeff Miller, Los Angeles Times, "Rayshawn Jenkins has gone from ‘knucklehead’ to maybe Chargers’ most exciting athlete," 3 Sep. 2019 Webb was born in 1946 in Oklahoma, and raised in Wichita Falls, Texas, where his father was enrolled in J. Frank Norris’s Bible Baptist Seminary. — Longreads, "The Story of Country Music’s Great Songwriting Duo," 3 Sep. 2019 Shirley was born and raised during the Great Depression in Buffalo, NY. — sun-sentinel.com, "Deaths in South Florida: 9/1," 1 Sep. 2019 The federal government owns more than a quarter of the land in this country, primarily in the American West, where I was born and raised and have fished, hunted, hiked, and lived for most of my life. — William Perry Pendley, The Denver Post, "William Perry Pendley: Rebutting a popular myth about my position on public lands," 30 Aug. 2019 Most fur-bearing animals have never been domesticated, which makes raising a fox for the trim of a parka inherently crueler than aborting a karakul lamb for a wool cap, animal rights activists say. — Glendale News-Press, "As California considers a fur ban, many in L.A. cling to their minks," 29 Aug. 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'bear.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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From the Editors at Merriam-Webster
Merriam-Webster and LACMA: Words and...
Merriam-Webster and LACMA: Words and Pictures
When a dictionary talks to a museum
Dictionary Entries near bear
Statistics for bear
Last Updated
12 Sep 2019
Look-up Popularity
Time Traveler for bear
The first known use of bear was before the 12th century
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More Definitions for bear
bear
nounFinancial Definition of bear
How It Works
Investors generally fall into two mindsets: those with an optimistic outlook who foresee prosperity, called "bulls," and those with a pessimistic outlook who foresee decline, called "bears."
A bearish investor will alter their portfolio strategy by liquidating securities they believe are going to lose value in the foreseeable future. A bullish investor, on the other hand, believes securities will continue to rise and would continue to invest long in securities.
Depending on an investor's outlook, they could change from a bear to a bull or vice-versa.
Why It Matters
Market perceptions can affect securities prices depending on how many bulls or bears there are in the market. This is best expressed by the bull/bear ratio. In either case, bulls and bears can impact the direction of market movements as a result of the investments they make.
If you're having difficulties remembering the which animal describes what, just remember: A bull attacks by thrusting his horns in an upward movement, while a bear attacks by swiping his paw in a downward movement. Therefore, if the market goes up, it's a bull market; it the market trends down, it's a bear market.
For more details on the history of these words, read The Quirky And Brutal Origins Of The Terms 'Bear' And 'Bull.'
Source: Investing Answers
bear
noun
English Language Learners Definition of bear
(Entry 1 of 2)
bear
verb
English Language Learners Definition of bear (Entry 2 of 2)
See the full definition for bear in the English Language Learners Dictionary
bear
noun
\
Kids Definition of bear
(Entry 1 of 2)
bear
verbKids Definition of bear (Entry 2 of 2)
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bear
transitive verb
\
\;
borne\ ˈbō(ə)rn, ˈbȯ(ə)rn
\
also born\ ˈbȯ(ə)rn
\;
bearing
Medical Definition of bear
bear
verb
\
\;
borne\ ˈbōrn \
also born
Legal Definition of bear
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