blear

== English == === Alternative forms === bleer (archaic) === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation, General Australian) IPA(key): /blɪə/ (US) IPA(key): /blɪɹ/ (New Zealand) IPA(key): /bliə/ (Scotland) IPA(key): /bliɹ/ (East Anglia, cheer–chair merger) IPA(key): /blɛː/ Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ) Homophones: blare (cheer–chair merger), Blair (cheer–chair merger) === Etymology 1 === 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. ==== Adjective ==== blear (comparative more blear, superlative most blear) (of eyes or vision) Dim; unclear from water or rheum. Causing or caused by dimness of sight. ===== Derived terms ===== ===== Translations ===== ==== See also ==== bleary === Etymology 2 === From Middle English bleren, from Old English *blerian. ==== Verb ==== blear (third-person singular simple present blears, present participle blearing, simple past and past participle bleared) (intransitive) To be blear; to have blear eyes; to look or gaze with blear eyes. 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,[1] Orpheus, a one-eyed blearing Thracian, The crowder of that barb’rous nation, Was ballad-singer by vocation; 1917, Madge Morris, The “Red Wind Blows” in The Lure of the Desert Land and Other Poems, San Francisco: Har Wagner, p. 83,[3] Let loose thy snow-winged dove, to rise And fly across the seething blood-mad world. To flutter over fields where that dread Silence is! To light on upturned faces blearing at the skies And curiously peck at dead men’s eyes. (transitive) To make (usually the eyes or eyesight) blurred or dim. 1584, Anonymous, Sonnet, in Clement Robinson et al., A Handefull of Pleasnt Delites, London: Richard Ihones, reprinted from the original edition for the Spenser Society, 1871, p. 52,[4] I Smile to ſee how you deuiſe, New maſking nets my eies to bleare: your ſelf you cannot ſo diſguiſe: But as you are, you muſt appeare. (transitive, of an image) To blur, make blurry. 1888, David Atwood Wasson, “Babes of God” Part II in Poems, Boston: Lee & Shepard, p. 36,[7] Now, one among the foremost, looking up By chance, with horror saw, in farthest sky Fronting their course, a troublous film of cloud,— A strange, dark, troublous film of cloud,— Blearing the beauty of the crystal wall. ===== Translations ===== === Etymology 3 === 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”). ==== Verb ==== blear (third-person singular simple present blears, present participle blearing, simple past and past participle bleared) Alternative form of blare === Anagrams === Abler, baler, abler, Rabel, Barle, Laber, belar, Baler, blare, Alber == Romansh == === Alternative forms === bler (Rumantsch Grischun, Surmiran, Vallader) bia (Sursilvan, Sutsilvan) bger (Puter) === Etymology === From Latin valde. === Adjective === blear m (feminine singular bleara, masculine plural blears, feminine plural blearas) (Sutsilvan) much, a lot of