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bare
1[ bair ]
adjective
- without covering or clothing; naked; nude:
bare legs.
Synonyms: undressed
- without the usual furnishings, contents, etc.:
bare walls.
- open to view; unconcealed; undisguised:
his bare dislike of neckties.
- unadorned; bald; plain:
the bare facts.
- (of cloth) napless or threadbare.
- scarcely or just sufficient; mere:
the bare necessities of life.
- Obsolete. with the head uncovered; bareheaded.
bare
2[ bair ]
verb
- simple past tense of bear 1.
bare
1/ bɛə /
bare
2/ bɛə /
adjective
- unclothed; exposed: used esp of a part of the body
- without the natural, conventional, or usual covering or clothing
a bare tree
- lacking appropriate furnishings, etc
a bare room
- unembellished; simple
the bare facts
- prenomial just sufficient; mere
he earned the bare minimum
- with one's bare handswithout a weapon or tool
verb
- tr to make bare; uncover; reveal
Derived Forms
- ˈbareness, noun
Other Words From
- barish adjective
- bareness noun
Word History and Origins
Origin of bare1
Word History and Origins
Origin of bare1
Synonym Study
Example Sentences
If you can’t touch the ground with your bare hand or step on it with bare feet, it’ll hurt your pet, Perry and Mynchenberg both say.
Covid-19 is intensifying technonationalist tendencies in part by laying bare the differences between countries that are handling the pandemic well and those that aren’t.
It found that neck gaiters made out of a polyester spandex material allowed more droplets of liquid to pass through when the wearer was speaking than any other type of face covering—and even bare lips.
In the future, you can see a lot of students going straight for the bare essentials.
Some good preparation for bare-knuckle New York City politics.
This year, a bare-bones welfare program will continue into the New Year without being updated.
“Bare [sic] with me on vlogmas,” she told her fans in a Tweet.
The further forward bare-boned science goes, however, the more forceful the counter- response.
Houses were evacuated and stripped bare, and civilians vanished at the sight of a truck.
The American Academy of Pediatrics advocates for infants to be put to sleep in a bare crib to prevent SIDS.
Eggs and nestlings were found lying on the bare soil at the inner ends of the burrows; no nesting material was found.
Sometimes the stems are quite bare; on other occasions they are partly branched; in any case the branches are short.
She thrust a bare, white arm from the curtain which shielded her open door, and received the cup from his hands.
From Canada on the north, to Texas on the south, the hot winds had laid the land seemingly bare.
Her little neck and arms were bare, and her hair, artificially crimped, stood out like fluffy black plumes over her head.
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Bare Vs. Bear
What’s the difference between bare and bear?
Bare can be an adjective that means uncovered (as in bare feet) or empty or without the usual contents (as in bare cabinets or bare walls), or a verb meaning to reveal or open to view (as in bare your secrets). As a verb, bear commonly means to endure something negative (as in I can’t bear to watch) or to carry, hold up, or support (as in The roof can’t bear that much weight), while as a noun it refers to the big furry animal (like grizzly bears and polar bears).
As a verb, bear is often used in the context of holding or carrying things, including in literal, physical ways (as in bear a load or bear weight) and in figurative ones (as in bear a grudge).
Bare is most commonly used as an adjective, usually involving something uncovered or empty.
To remember the difference in spelling, remember that bears have ears, and they are able to bear a lot of weight because of how big and strong they are, but they are never bare because they are covered in fur.
Here’s an example of bare and bear used correctly in a sentence.
Example: Why does the bear never wear shoes? Because he prefers bare feet.
Want to learn more? Read the full breakdown of the difference between bare and bear.
Quiz yourself on bare vs. bear!
Should bare or bear be used in the following sentence?
He chose to _____ his soul to her by showing her his poetry.
About This Word
What else does bare mean?
Bare is UK slang for very or lots of.
Where does bare come from?
The slang bare originates in Multicultural London English in the 1990s and was widely reported on as UK slang in the 2010s in the mainstream presence.
A contributor to its spread is the popular, London-based genre of rap music called Grime, which features aggressive, hard-hitting beats and lyrics. In their 2016 song “Too Many Man,” for instance, Grime group Boy Better Know sang about the club: “We need some more girls in here…Bare man not enough girls in here.” That track featured the “Godfather of Grime” himself, Wiley, who wrote “bare hype, bare bullshit, bare drama” on his 2015 mixtape Tunnel Vision Volume 1.
In 2013, a school in south London attempted to ban students from using words like bare on campus, believing it hurt their employment chances later in life.
How is bare used in real life?
Bare is used as an intensifier. If you earn bare money, you earn “a lot” of money.
being an estate agent was one of my ideas might actually get into it tbh you earn bare money
— kian (@ky6hh) October 18, 2018
If you are bare hungry, as another example, then you are “extremely” hungry.
If you were in the presence of bare women, as many who use the word often claim to be, that would be “many girls.”
Thanks to the popularity of Grime music and the diversity of London, bare has spread beyond UK slang into mainstream youth slang. It’s still closely associated with London slang, however.
More examples of bare:
“School slang ban is bare extra, innit?“
—Felix Allen, The Sun (headline), October, 2013
Note
This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term’s history, meaning, and usage.
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