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Bear down   /bɛr daʊn/   Listen
verb
Bear  v. t.  (past bore, formerly bare; past part. borne, born; pres. part. bearing)  
1.
To support or sustain; to hold up.
2.
To support and remove or carry; to convey. "I 'll bear your logs the while."
3.
To conduct; to bring; said of persons. (Obs.) "Bear them to my house."
4.
To possess and use, as power; to exercise. "Every man should bear rule in his own house."
5.
To sustain; to have on (written or inscribed, or as a mark), as, the tablet bears this inscription.
6.
To possess or carry, as a mark of authority or distinction; to wear; as, to bear a sword, badge, or name.
7.
To possess mentally; to carry or hold in the mind; to entertain; to harbor "The ancient grudge I bear him."
8.
To endure; to tolerate; to undergo; to suffer. "Should such a man, too fond to rule alone, Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne." "I cannot bear The murmur of this lake to hear." "My punishment is greater than I can bear."
9.
To gain or win. (Obs.) "Some think to bear it by speaking a great word." "She was... found not guilty, through bearing of friends and bribing of the judge."
10.
To sustain, or be answerable for, as blame, expense, responsibility, etc. "He shall bear their iniquities." "Somewhat that will bear your charges."
11.
To render or give; to bring forward. "Your testimony bear"
12.
To carry on, or maintain; to have. "The credit of bearing a part in the conversation."
13.
To admit or be capable of; that is, to suffer or sustain without violence, injury, or change. "In all criminal cases the most favorable interpretation should be put on words that they can possibly bear."
14.
To manage, wield, or direct. "Thus must thou thy body bear." Hence: To behave; to conduct. "Hath he borne himself penitently in prison?"
15.
To afford; to be to; to supply with. "His faithful dog shall bear him company."
16.
To bring forth or produce; to yield; as, to bear apples; to bear children; to bear interest. "Here dwelt the man divine whom Samos bore." Note: In the passive form of this verb, the best modern usage restricts the past participle born to the sense of brought forth, while borne is used in the other senses of the word. In the active form, borne alone is used as the past participle.
To bear down.
(a)
To force into a lower place; to carry down; to depress or sink. "His nose,... large as were the others, bore them down into insignificance."
(b)
To overthrow or crush by force; as, to bear down an enemy.
To bear a hand.
(a)
To help; to give assistance.
(b)
(Naut.) To make haste; to be quick.
To bear in hand, to keep (one) up in expectation, usually by promises never to be realized; to amuse by false pretenses; to delude. (Obs.) "How you were borne in hand, how crossed."
To bear in mind, to remember.
To bear off.
(a)
To restrain; to keep from approach.
(b)
(Naut.) To remove to a distance; to keep clear from rubbing against anything; as, to bear off a blow; to bear off a boat.
(c)
To gain; to carry off, as a prize.
(d)
(Backgammon) To remove from the backgammon board into the home when the position of the piece and the dice provide the proper opportunity; the goal of the game is to bear off all of one's men before the opponent.
To bear one hard, to owe one a grudge. (Obs.) "Caesar doth bear me hard."
To bear out.
(a)
To maintain and support to the end; to defend to the last. "Company only can bear a man out in an ill thing."
(b)
To corroborate; to confirm.
To bear up, to support; to keep from falling or sinking. "Religious hope bears up the mind under sufferings."
Synonyms: To uphold; sustain; maintain; support; undergo; suffer; endure; tolerate; carry; convey; transport; waft.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Bear down" Quotes from Famous Books



... adj.; run high; ferment, effervesce; romp, rampage, go on a rampage; run wild, run amuck, run riot; break the peace; rush, tear; rush headlong, rush foremost; raise a storm, make a riot; rough house [Slang]; riot, storm; wreak, bear down, ride roughshod, out Herod, Herod; spread like wildfire (person). [shout or act in anger at something], explode, make a row, kick up a row; boil, boil over; fume, foam, come on like a lion, bluster, rage, roar, fly off the handle, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... out of the water. I conjectured that she had been sunk in the hurricane of the previous day, and on the possibility that some of the crew might still be clinging to her rigging, although I was on a lee-shore, I resolved to bear down on her. I pointed her out to Grampus, and ...
— Hurricane Hurry • W.H.G. Kingston
... abounds with blood, to bleed her a little more may not be improper, for thereby she will both breathe the better, and have her breasts more at liberty, and likewise more strength to bear down her pains; and this may be done without danger because the child being about ready to be born, has no more need of the mother's blood for its nourishment; besides, this evacuation does many times prevent her having a fever after delivery. Also, before her delivery, if her strength will permit, let ...
— The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher • Anonymous
... stones should the layer of soil be less than two or three inches thick after being packed hard. If an upper stone is likely to bear down too heavily and crush the plant roots, this may be avoided by placing small stones here and there in the layer of soil. The roots will work between these stones, but there must be a continuous, though not necessarily straight, soil run from the front of ...
— Making A Rock Garden • Henry Sherman Adams
... poverty, even under the present social institutions: and, these being supposed, the question of socialism is not, as generally stated by Socialists, a question of flying to the sole refuge against the evils which now bear down humanity, but a mere question of comparative advantages, which futurity must determine. We are too ignorant either of what individual agency in its best form, or socialism in its best form, can accomplish, to be ...
— Principles Of Political Economy • John Stuart Mill
... lost, till I reflected that she must come back for another tack before she could clear the bend. If so, I was safe. So I kept steadily on, scarcely holding my own with my pursuers, until at length, to my joy, I saw her put about and bear down full upon me. It was an anxious time as she came up. No one on board, it was clear, guessed who I might be; nor, I think, did any one perceive me as I lay there, except the man at the prow, who, seeing me resolved to be run down, left ...
— Sir Ludar - A Story of the Days of the Great Queen Bess • Talbot Baines Reed
... trailed English honour at the chariot-wheels of Spain. War seemed at last inevitable; for not only did James's honour call for some effort to win back the Palatinate for his daughter's children, but the resentment of Charles and Buckingham was ready to bear down any reluctance of the king. From the moment of their return indeed the direction of English affairs passed out of the hands of James into those of the favourite and the Prince. Charles started on his task ...
— History of the English People, Volume V (of 8) - Puritan England, 1603-1660 • John Richard Green
... public improvements by the ignorance, the indifference, the untractableness, the perverse obstinacy of a people, and the corrupt combinations of selfish private interests, armed with the powerful weapons afforded by free institutions, should at times sigh for a strong hand to bear down all these obstacles, and compel a recalcitrant people to be better governed. But (setting aside the fact that for one despot who now and then reforms an abuse, there are ninety-nine who do nothing but create them) those who look ...
— Considerations on Representative Government • John Stuart Mill
... villages of Simonsbath and Parracombe, but the last of them was killed in the reign of Elizabeth. In her reign, also, wild-pigs could be hunted here, while the existence of such names as Crane Tor, Lynx Tor, Bear Down, is evidence of an even greater variety of game in Saxon times than now. Yet there is abundance still, hares and foxes, badger and otter; the otter, indeed, makes grievous depredations among the salmon that come up the river to spawn, for, like a dingo among sheep, ...
— Lynton and Lynmouth - A Pageant of Cliff & Moorland • John Presland


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