Full-bore

adj, adv

adj, adv ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Thoroughgoing; complete; total. not-comparable

    "The problem had grown into a full-bore crisis."

  2. 2
    Having a relatively large caliber. not-comparable

    "Mounted on the wall was a full-bore elephant gun."

Adverb
  1. 1
    At top speed; with full power. not-comparable

    "The car raced full-bore into oncoming traffic."

Synonyms

All synonyms
abjectarrantballs to the wallballs-outcompleteconsummate

Example

More examples

"The problem had grown into a full-bore crisis."

Etymology

From full + bore (“barrel of a gun”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.