bear on

[bair] Origin

bear

1[bair] verb, bore or (Archaic) bare; borne or born; bear·ing.
verb (used with object)
1.
to hold up; support: to bear the weight of the roof.
2.
to hold or remain firm under (a load): The roof will not bear the strain of his weight.
3.
to bring forth (young); give birth to: to bear a child.
4.
to produce by natural growth: a tree that bears fruit.
5.
to hold up under; be capable of: His claim doesn't bear close examination.
EXPAND
6.
to press or push against: The crowd was borne back by the police.
7.
to hold or carry (oneself, one's body, one's head, etc.): to bear oneself erectly.
8.
to conduct (oneself): to bear oneself bravely.
9.
to suffer; endure; undergo: to bear the blame.
10.
to sustain without yielding or suffering injury; tolerate (usually used in negative constructions, unless qualified): I can't bear your nagging. I can hardly bear to see her suffering so.
11.
to be fit for or worthy of: It doesn't bear repeating.
12.
to carry; bring: to bear gifts.
13.
to carry in the mind or heart: to bear love; to bear malice.
14.
to transmit or spread (gossip, tales, etc.).
15.
to render; afford; give: to bear witness; to bear testimony.
16.
to lead; guide; take: They bore him home.
17.
to have and be entitled to: to bear title.
18.
to exhibit; show: to bear a resemblance.
19.
to accept or have, as an obligation: to bear responsibility; to bear the cost.
20.
to stand in (a relation or ratio); have or show correlatively: the relation that price bears to profit.
21.
to possess, as a quality or characteristic; have in or on: to bear traces; to bear an inscription.
22.
to have and use; exercise: to bear authority; to bear sway.
COLLAPSE
verb (used without object)
23.
to tend in a course or direction; move; go: to bear west; to bear left at the fork in the road.
24.
to be located or situated: The lighthouse bears due north.
25.
to bring forth young or fruit: Next year the tree will bear.

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Bear on is always a great word to know.
So is flibbertigibbet. Does it mean:
a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
26.
bear down,
a.
to press or weigh down.
b.
to strive harder; intensify one's efforts: We can't hope to finish unless everyone bears down.
c.
Nautical. to approach from windward, as a ship: The cutter was bearing down the channel at twelve knots.
27.
bear down on/upon,
a.
to press or weigh down on.
b.
to strive toward.
c.
to approach something rapidly.
d.
Nautical. to approach (another vessel) from windward: The sloop bore down on us, narrowly missing our stern.
28.
bear off,
a.
Nautical. to keep (a boat) from touching or rubbing against a dock, another boat, etc.
b.
Nautical. to steer away.
c.
Backgammon. to remove the stones from the board after they are all home.
29.
bear on/upon, to affect, relate to, or have connection with; be relevant to: This information may bear on the case.
30.
bear out, to substantiate; confirm: The facts bear me out.
EXPAND
31.
bear up, to endure; face hardship bravely: It is inspiring to see them bearing up so well.
32.
bear with, to be patient or forbearing with: Please bear with me until I finish the story.
COLLAPSE
33.
bring to bear, to concentrate on with a specific purpose: Pressure was brought to bear on those with overdue accounts.

Origin:
before 900; Middle English beren, Old English beran; cognate with Old Saxon, Old High German beran, Dutch baren, Old Frisian, Old Norse bera, Gothic bairan, German (ge)bären, Russian berët (he) takes, Albanian bie, Tocharian pär-, Phrygian ab-beret (he) brings, Latin ferre, Old Irish berid (he) carries, Armenian berem, Greek phérein, Sanskrit bhárati, Avestan baraiti; < Indo-European *bher- (see -fer, -phore


1. uphold, sustain. 4. yield. 6. thrust, drive, force. 10. brook, abide, suffer. Bear, stand, endure refer to supporting the burden of something distressing, irksome, or painful. Bear and stand are close synonyms and have a general sense of withstanding: to bear a disappointment well; to stand a loss. Endure implies continued resistance and patience in bearing through a long time: to endure torture.


Since the latter part of the 18th century, a distinction has been made between born and borne as past participles of the verb bear1. Borne is the past participle in all senses that do not refer to physical birth: The wheatfields have borne abundantly this year. Judges have always borne a burden of responsibility. EXPANDBorne is also the participle when the sense is “to bring forth (young)” and the focus is on the mother rather than on the child. In such cases, borne is preceded by a form of have or followed by by: Anna had borne a son the previous year. Two children borne by her earlier were already grown. When the focus is on the offspring or on something brought forth as if by birth, born is the standard spelling, and it occurs only in passive constructions: My friend was born in Ohio. No children have been born at the South Pole. A strange desire was born of the tragic experience. Born is also an adjective meaning “by birth,” “innate,” or “native”: born free; a born troublemaker; Mexican-born.
COLLAPSE
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To bear on
Collins
World English Dictionary
bear on
 
vb
1.  to be relevant to; relate to
2.  to be burdensome to or afflict: his misdeeds bore heavily on his conscience

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

bear
O.E. bera "bear," from P.Gmc. *beron "the brown one" (cf. O.N. björn, Ger. Bär), from PIE *bher- (3) "bright, brown" (see brown). Greek arktos and Latin ursus retain the PIE root word for "bear" (*rtko), but it is believed to have been ritually replaced in the northern
EXPAND
branches because of hunters' taboo on names of wild animals (cf. the Ir. equivalent "the good calf," Welsh "honey-pig," Lith. "the licker," Rus. medved "honey-eater"). Others connect the Germanic word with Latin ferus "wild," as if it meant "the wild animal (par excellence) of the northern woods." Symbolic of Russia since 1794. Used of uncouth persons since 1570s. Meaning "speculator for a fall" is 1709 shortening of bearskin jobber (from the proverb sell the bearskin before one has caught the bear); i.e. "one who sells stock for future delivery, expecting that meanwhile prices will fall." Paired with bull from c.1720.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Slang Dictionary

bear definition


  1. n.
    a difficult task. : This problem is a real bear.
  2. n.
    an ugly woman. (Derogatory.) : Tell the old bear to hold her tongue.
  3. n.
    a highway patrol officer. (See also Smokey (the Bear).) : There's a bear hiding under that bridge.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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