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Bare

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bare¹

  • /bɛə/ UK
  • /bɛː/ UK
  • /bɛɹ/ US
  • /bɛɚ/ US
  • /beː/ Australia
  • [beː~bɛː] Australia
  • /beə/ New Zealand
  • /biə/
  • /beɹ/ Scotland
  • /bɜː(ɹ)/

Sounds like bear, beer (cheer–chair merger), burr (fair–fur merger) · Rhymes with -ɛə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

From Middle English bare, bar, from Old English bær (“bare, naked, open”), from Proto-West Germanic *baʀ, from Proto-Germanic *bazaz (“bare, naked”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰosós, from *bʰos- (“bare, barefoot”).

Cognate with Scots bare, bair (“bare”), Saterland Frisian bar (“bare”), West Frisian baar (“bare”), Dutch bar (“bare”), German bar (“bare”), Swedish bar (“bare”), Icelandic ber (“bare”), Lithuanian basas (“barefoot, bare”), Polish bosy (“barefoot”).

adjective barer · barest

  1. Minimal; that is or are just sufficient. a bare majority
  2. Naked, uncovered. "I refuse to show myself out of doors in my bare feet," the Centipede said. "I have to get my boots on again first."
  3. Having no supplies. a room bare of furniture
  4. Having no decoration. The walls of this room are bare — why not hang some paintings on them?
  5. Having had what usually covers (something) removed. The trees were left bare after the swarm of locusts devoured all the leaves.
  6. Multicultural London English, Yorkshire, not comparable, slang A lot or lots of. It's taking bare time.
  7. With head uncovered; bareheaded. When once thy foot enters the church, be bare. / God is more there, then thou: for thou art there / Onely by his permiſſion.
  8. Without anything to cover up or conceal one's thoughts or actions; open to view; exposed. Bare in thy guilt how foul muſt thou appear?
  9. figuratively Mere; without embellishment. bare essentials; bare necessities
  10. Threadbare, very worn. for it appears, by their bare liveries, that they live by your bare words.
  11. Not insured. Before the company was formed, the firm went bare for about three months in 1985, but it now has prior acts coverage for that time.

adverb

  1. dialectal Barely. The fiend had bare departed when Ailie came over the threshold to find the auld carline glunching over the fire.
  2. Multicultural London English, slang Very; significantly. That pissed me off bare.
  3. slang Without a condom. While none of the participants had complete confidence in condoms, they continued to use them as a better alternative than “going in bare".

noun bares

  1. The surface, the (bare) skin. In sad good earnest, sir, you have toucht the very bare of naked truth [...]
  2. Surface; body; substance. You have touched the very bare of naked truth.
  3. That part of a roofing slate, shingle, tile, or metal plate, which is exposed to the weather.

bare²

  • /bɛə/ UK
  • /bɛː/ UK
  • /bɛɹ/ US
  • /bɛɚ/ US
  • /beː/ Australia
  • [beː~bɛː] Australia
  • /beə/ New Zealand
  • /biə/
  • /beɹ/ Scotland
  • /bɜː(ɹ)/

Sounds like bear, beer (cheer–chair merger), burr (fair–fur merger) · Rhymes with -ɛə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

From Middle English baren, from Old English barian, from Proto-Germanic *bazōną (“to bare, make bare”).

verb bares · baring · bared

  1. figuratively, sometimes, transitive To uncover; to reveal. She bared her teeth at him.

bare³

  • /bɛə/ UK
  • /bɛː/ UK
  • /bɛɹ/ US
  • /bɛɚ/ US
  • /beː/ Australia
  • [beː~bɛː] Australia
  • /beə/ New Zealand
  • /biə/
  • /beɹ/ Scotland
  • /bɜː(ɹ)/

Sounds like bear, beer (cheer–chair merger), burr (fair–fur merger) · Rhymes with -ɛə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

Inflected forms.

verb

  1. obsolete, past simple past of bear And the children of the Levites bare the ark of God upon their shoulders with the staves thereon

Bare⁴

proper noun Bares

  1. countable, uncountable A surname.
  2. countable, uncountable A suburb of Morecambe, Lancaster district, Lancashire, England, served by Bare Lane railway station (OS grid ref SD4564).

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