Yare
adj, adv, name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Alternative form of yair. alt-of, alternative
- 1 Ready; prepared. archaic
- 2 Ready, alert, prepared, prompt. UK, dialectal
"[…]Dismount thy tuck, be yare in thy preparation, for thy assailant is quick, skillful and deadly."
- 3 Eager, keen, lively, handy; agile, nimble.
- 4 Easily manageable and responsive to the helm; yar.
"c. 1587-1612 (undated), Sir Walter Raleigh, letter to Prince Henry The lesser [ship] will come and go, leave or take, and is yare; whereas the greater is slow."
- 1 Yarely. archaic
"Hey, my hearts! Cheerly, cheerly, my hearts! Yare, yare! Take in the topsail. Tend to th'Master's whistle.[…]"
- 1 A river in Norfolk, England, which flows into the North Sea at Great Yarmouth.
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"[…]Dismount thy tuck, be yare in thy preparation, for thy assailant is quick, skillful and deadly."
Etymology
From Middle English yare, ȝare, from Old English ġearu (“prepared, ready, prompt, equipped, complete, finished, yare”), from Proto-West Germanic *garu, from Proto-Germanic *garwaz (“ready”). Cognate with Dutch gaar (“done, well-cooked”), German gar (“done, well-cooked; wholly, at all”), Icelandic görr, gerr (“perfect”).
Of Anglo-Celtic origin, the name probably means "babbling brook," from a Celtic base *gar- (“noisy, chattering”), probably related to Proto-Germanic *karō (“complaint, moan”) and Latin garrio (“to babble, chatter”).
Related phrases
More for "yare"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.