- To wear the breeches
- Wear Wear, v. t. [imp. {Wore} (w[=o]r); p. p. {Worn}
(w[=o]rn); p. pr. & vb. n. {Wearing}. Before the 15th century
wear was a weak verb, the imp. & p. p. being {Weared}.] [OE.
weren, werien, AS. werian to carry, to wear, as arms or
clothes; akin to OHG. werien, weren, to clothe, Goth. wasjan,
L. vestis clothing, vestire to clothe, Gr. "enny`nai, Skr.
vas. Cf. {Vest}.]
[1913 Webster]
1. To carry or bear upon the person; to bear upon one's self,
as an article of clothing, decoration, warfare, bondage,
etc.; to have appendant to one's body; to have on; as, to
wear a coat; to wear a shackle.
[1913 Webster]
What compass will you wear your farthingale? --Shak. [1913 Webster]
On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore, Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore. --Pope. [1913 Webster]
2. To have or exhibit an appearance of, as an aspect or manner; to bear; as, she wears a smile on her countenance. ``He wears the rose of youth upon him.'' --Shak. [1913 Webster]
His innocent gestures wear A meaning half divine. --Keble. [1913 Webster]
3. To use up by carrying or having upon one's self; hence, to consume by use; to waste; to use up; as, to wear clothes rapidly. [1913 Webster]
4. To impair, waste, or diminish, by continual attrition, scraping, percussion, on the like; to consume gradually; to cause to lower or disappear; to spend. [1913 Webster]
That wicked wight his days doth wear. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
The waters wear the stones. --Job xiv. 19. [1913 Webster]
5. To cause or make by friction or wasting; as, to wear a channel; to wear a hole. [1913 Webster]
6. To form or shape by, or as by, attrition. [1913 Webster]
Trials wear us into a liking of what, possibly, in the first essay, displeased us. --Locke. [1913 Webster]
{To wear away}, to consume; to impair, diminish, or destroy, by gradual attrition or decay.
{To wear off}, to diminish or remove by attrition or slow decay; as, to wear off the nap of cloth.
{To wear on} or {To wear upon}, to wear. [Obs.] ``[I] weared upon my gay scarlet gites [gowns.]'' --Chaucer.
{To wear out}. (a) To consume, or render useless, by attrition or decay; as, to wear out a coat or a book. (b) To consume tediously. ``To wear out miserable days.'' --Milton. (c) To harass; to tire. ``[He] shall wear out the saints of the Most High.'' --Dan vii. 25. (d) To waste the strength of; as, an old man worn out in military service.
{To wear the breeches}. See under {Breeches}. [Colloq.] [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
