to bear
- verb
- /bɛr/
- Specialized
- Software developers' reuse of code from the Internet bears legal and economic risks for their employers.
- bear interest
- bear fruit
I have very low confidence that this idea will bear fruit.
- I have very low confidence that this idea will bear fruit.
Examples
-
By diversifying their portfolio, investors can potentially bear more substantial dividends over time.
-
You have no idea how much it cost me to bring such a force to bear here.
-
A loan, I might add, that is bearing absolutely no interest.
-
We now have data from three major surveys that bear on Soviet foreign policy attitudes.
Academic text (1990) -
Radically different philosophies have been brought to bear on the question of measuring environmental damage.
Academic text (1991) -
The new investment strategy is designed to bear higher returns for our clients.
-
This savings account will bear interest at a competitive rate, benefiting your long-term financial goals.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Idioms
- Informal
To do something on purpose to make an angry or dangerous person react
- Formal
To behave calmly and with self-respect in difficult or formal situations
Phrasal Verbs
- Formal
Show that something is true, often by signs or by people saying they saw it
Compounds
- US
A large, powerful brown bear that lives in mountains and forests in western North America
- Specialized
A time when stock prices fall a lot and people expect them to keep falling
A large, powerful wild animal with brown fur that lives in forests in Asia and North America
- Australian
A slow tree animal from Australia with grey fur that eats eucalyptus leaves and carries its babies in a pouch
- Jargon
An offer to buy a company at a very high price that its directors feel they must accept
- Baby Talk
A made-up colorful bear character with a symbol on its belly showing a feeling
- Specialized
A medium-sized North American bear usually with black or dark brown fur and less aggressive than brown bears
- US
A plant that lives for many years with long leaves like grass and tall stalks of white flowers
- UK
A small reddish-brown animal like a raccoon that lives in the eastern Himalayas and eats bamboo
- Australian
A fake dangerous animal Australians joke about that falls from trees onto people to scare tourists
A large hairy South American mammal with a long tongue and strong claws for eating ants
A very large brown bear that lives on the coasts of Alaska and British Columbia
- Indian
A medium-sized black bear with a white V-shaped chest patch from central and eastern Asia
- US
An animal from tropical America that lives in trees and uses its long tail to hold branches while eating fruit
- Australian
A small Australian animal that lives in trees, carries babies in a pouch, and eats eucalyptus leaves
- US
A stocky wild animal from North America with thick fur that eats meat, like a wolverine
A hairy caterpillar with thick, stiff hairs that turns into a small moth
How Profitable
Surface Forms
Etymology
Bear (as in 'bears interest') comes from the old German beran meaning 'to carry' or 'produce', so an account that 'bears' interest 'produces' extra money.