Ware
adj, name, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Goods or a type of goods offered for sale or use. in-compounds, uncountable, usually
"Astbury was the more successful and made frequent journeys to London, where he sold his ware and obtained further orders."
- 2 Seaweed; drift seaweed; seawrack. UK, dialectal, obsolete
"On many of the farms in East Lothian, from 100 to 120 Imperial acres are annually manured with sea-ware; and when I mention that 30 double-cart loads are spread on 1 acre, you may conceive the labour incurred in carting from 3000 to 3600 loads during a short season; for it is only in winter that the ware is cast ashore by storms,[…]"
- 3 Spring, springtime. Northern-England, Scotland
- 4 items for sale to the individual consumer wordnet
- 5 See wares. in-plural, uncountable, usually
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- 6 articles of the same kind or material; usually used in combination: ‘silverware’, ‘software’ wordnet
- 7 Pottery or metal goods. uncountable, usually
"damascene ware, tole ware"
- 8 A style or genre of artifact. countable, usually
- 9 Crockery. Ireland, uncountable, usually
- 1 To be ware or mindful of something. dialectal, obsolete
"1450, Palladius on Husbondrieː Ware the horn and heels lest they fling a flap to thee."
- 2 Alternative form of wear (“to veer or bring (a sailing vessel) onto the other tack by bringing the wind around the stern”) alt-of, alternative
"The Ship wares bravely, steddy, steddy; she is before it. […] The Ship wares round, so right the Helm; hard up."
- 3 Old eye dialect spelling of were.
"Againſt this ther ware many objections made by the creditors, viz., that quoad the 9000 lƀ. a year contained in his contract of marriage, they ware præferable, being præferable and prior creditors, and ſo he was ſucceſſor titulo lucrativo poſt contractum debitum; and as to the 6000 lƀ. per annum added, 1^(o.) before that letter they had a jus quæſitum by the ſignitor; 2^(do.) They had rights præferable."
- 4 simple past of wear form-of, obsolete, past
- 5 spend extravagantly wordnet
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- 6 To protect or guard (especially oneself); to be on guard, be wary. obsolete
"Ware thee."
- 1 Aware. poetic
"And in like wise as she said so they departed, that neither the king nor none of his council were ware of their departing."
- 2 Wary; cautious. obsolete
"He is ware inough; he is wilye, and circumſpect for ſtirring vp any ſedition."
- 1 A placename:; A place in England:; A hamlet in Uplyme parish, East Devon district, Devon, next to Lyme Regis in Dorset (OS grid ref SY3291) countable, uncountable
- 2 A placename:; A place in England:; A town and civil parish in East Hertfordshire district, Hertfordshire (OS grid ref TL3614). countable, uncountable
- 3 A placename:; A place in England:; A hamlet in Ash parish, Dover district, Kent (OS grid ref TR2860). countable, uncountable
- 4 A placename:; A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Union County, Illinois. countable, uncountable
- 5 A placename:; A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Sherman Township, Pocahontas County, Iowa. countable, uncountable
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- 6 A placename:; A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Casey County, Kentucky. countable, uncountable
- 7 A placename:; A number of places in the United States:; A town and census-designated place therein, in Hampshire County, Massachusetts. countable, uncountable
- 8 A placename:; A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Jefferson County, Missouri. countable, uncountable
- 9 A placename:; A number of places in the United States:; Ellipsis of Ware County. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountable
- 10 A surname. countable
Example
More examples"When a robot receives the order for certain merchandise it identifies the shelf containing the ware, lifts it just a few inches off the floor and carries it to a worker, who only has to place the item into a box on a conveyer belt to the shipping department."
Etymology
From Middle English ware, from Old English waru, from Proto-West Germanic *waru, from Proto-Germanic *warō (“attention”) as in beware, in the sense of “an object of care, a valuable”, from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to watch, keep guard”), whence also ward. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Were (“an item for exchange, barter, or sale; ware”), Dutch waar (“goods offered for sale or use; ware”), German Ware (“ware”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk vare (“ware”), Faroese vøra (“ware”), Icelandic and Swedish vara (“ware”).
From Middle English ware, war, from Old English wær, from Proto-West Germanic *war, from Proto-Germanic *waraz.
From Middle English waren (“to be ware, be on guard, be mindful, protect, guard”), from Old English warian, from Proto-West Germanic *warōn, from Proto-Germanic *warōną. Cognate with Saterland Frisian woarje (“to guard”).
From Middle English wor (in sewor) from Old English wār (“seaweed”), ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *wīraz; compare wire. Cognate with Scots wair (“seaweed”), Dutch wier (“seaweed”), Middle Dutch wier (“seaweed”).
From Middle English ware, from Old Norse vár (“spring”), from Proto-Germanic *wazrą. Cognate with Icelandic vor (“spring”), Swedish vår (“spring”), Danish vår (“spring”), Scots ware, wair (“spring”).
Related phrases
More for "ware"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.