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to wear

to wear

525 3.2
Show an expression on your face, like a smile or frown
  • verb
  • /wɛr/
translation icon : llevar
  • She decided to wear a smile to cheer up her friends during the tough times.
  • wear long hair
  • wear a beard
  • wear a tattoo

Edison seemed to wear failure as a badge of courage.

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Examples

  • And yeah, you do wear your heart and your sleeve a little bit.

  • For a May 2009 cover of Rolling Stone, Gaga wore an outfit made of plastic bubbles.

    Academic text (2013)
  • And so we have to kind of wear that hat with a little more pride.

  • OK, so you wear it like that.

  • And it's not the shirt, it's not how you wear your hair.

  • In time you will wear it lightly enough.

  • The next thing that can make you look older is when you wear mainly neutrals.

  • He was that self he had long since taught himself to wear in the world's eye.

  • Edison seemed to wear failure as a badge of courage.

  • Abruptly changing the subject, she asked, "What are you wearing to Dalmar's ball this evening?"

    Fiction book (1990)

Antonyms

1.0

To keep something so others cannot see or understand it

111 3.7

To cover part of something to hide or protect it

Idioms

Looking or feeling tired and in poor condition after use

3 7.0

To stay too long as a guest so the host wants you to leave

1 7.0

Stay too long and make people feel annoyed

To be the person who has the most control in a couple or family

To show your feelings openly so other people can see them

1 6.3

To have more jobs and duties than you can handle

Accept a criticism if it applies to you

Phrasal Verbs

93 4.0

An effect or feeling that becomes less strong and then stops

27 4.1

Slowly make a person or thing weaker by repeated pressure

26 2.3

To get damaged or stop working after long use

23 2.1

Dress in black clothes to show you are sad after someone dies

23 4.9

Time passes slowly and feels long

19 2.7

To make a person very tired or a thing stop working by using it too much

To put on a strong hat to protect your head

to wear thin
  • Informal
11 6.2

Lose people's trust or patience over time

To put sunscreen on your skin to protect it from the sun

To put on clothes or a mask to hide who you are

4 4.2

Become faded or damaged from use

2 3.8

To slowly remove material by rubbing or long use

1 5.6

Become thin or damaged from use, like a carpet

to wear thongs
  • Australian
1 7.9

To put on flip-flop sandals that people wear in Australia

to wear round
  • Specialized
9.9

To turn the front of a boat away from the wind so it blows from the other side

to wear ship
  • Specialized
9.9

Turn a sailing boat away from the wind by moving the back through the wind, not the front

Make someone tired over time from too much work or stress

Compounds

17 3.0

Slow damage that happens to things like cars or furniture from normal use over time

Clothes made in standard sizes that are sold in stores

Clothes people wear for sports or exercise and often for comfort

Comfortable casual clothes worn when relaxing or during free time

2.7

Items like gloves or mittens you put on your hands for warmth, protection, and style

Made in standard sizes and sold in stores instead of being made for one person

Cloth that does not need ironing after it is washed

A fabric you can wash and wear without ironing

How Expressive

to radiate
15 4.0
to wear
525 3.2
to show
1.0
to suggest
2.1

Surface Forms

wear infinitive
wearing present participle
wears third person singular
wore past
worn past participle

Etymology

To wear an expression, like a smile, comes from the same idea of 'carrying' something on you, so to wear a look is to 'carry' that feeling on your face.