Refine this word faster
Blear
Definitions
- 1 Dim; unclear from water or rheum.
"A Promontory Wen, with grieſly grace, Stood high, upon the Handle of his Face: His blear Eyes ran in gutters to his Chin: His Beard was stubble, and his Cheeks were thin."
- 2 Causing or caused by dimness of sight.
"Thus I hurle My dazling spells into the ſpungie aire Of power to cheate the eye with bleare illuſion, And give it falſe preſentments, […]"
- 1 tired to the point of exhaustion wordnet
- 1 To be blear; to have blear eyes; to look or gaze with blear eyes. intransitive
"18th c., attributed to Jonathan Swift, “The Story of Orpheus, Burlesqued,” in Walter Scott (ed.), The Works of Jonathan Swift, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 2nd edition, 1883, Volume 10, p. 403, Orpheus, a one-eyed blearing Thracian, The crowder of that barb’rous nation, Was ballad-singer by vocation;"
- 2 Alternative form of blare alt-of, alternative
- 3 make dim or indistinct wordnet
- 4 To make (usually the eyes or eyesight) blurred or dim. transitive
"your ſelf you cannot ſo diſguiſe:"
- 5 To blur, make blurry. transitive
"When winter blears bleakly the forest, And the water binds gray to its blue, Safe and sound in her covert I leave her, Till spring calls again my canoe."
Etymology
From Middle English blere, related to Low German bleeroged (“bleareyed”), Middle High German blerre (“double vision”), German Blerre (“double vision”). Perhaps also related to blur.
From Middle English bleren, from Old English *blerian.
From Middle English bleren, from Old English *blǣran, related to West Frisian blearje (“to bleat, shout”), Dutch bleren, blaren (“to bellow, bleat”), German Low German blaren, blarren (“to blare, howl, shriek”), German plärren (“to howl, shriek, blare”).
See also for "blear"
Next best steps
Mini challenge
Unscramble this word: blear