[syn: charge, bearing, heraldic bearing, armorial bearing]
6. a rotating support placed between moving parts to allow them to move easily;
ADJECTIVE (1)
1. (of a structural member) withstanding a weight or strain;
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Bearing \Bear"ing\ (b[^a]r"[i^]ng), n.
1. The manner in which one bears or conducts one's self;
mien; behavior; carriage.
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I know him by his bearing. --Shak.
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2. Patient endurance; suffering without complaint.
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3. The situation of one object, with respect to another, such
situation being supposed to have a connection with the
object, or influence upon it, or to be influenced by it;
hence, relation; connection.
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But of this frame, the bearings and the ties,
The strong connections, nice dependencies. --Pope.
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4. Purport; meaning; intended significance; aspect.
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5. The act, power, or time of producing or giving birth; as,
a tree in full bearing; a tree past bearing.
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[His mother] in travail of his bearing. --R. of
Gloucester.
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6. (Arch.)
(a) That part of any member of a building which rests upon
its supports; as, a lintel or beam may have four
inches of bearing upon the wall.
(b) The portion of a support on which anything rests.
(c) Improperly, the unsupported span; as, the beam has
twenty feet of bearing between its supports.
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7. (Mach.)
(a) The part of an axle or shaft in contact with its
support, collar, or boxing; the journal.
(b) The part of the support on which a journal rests and
rotates.
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8. (Her.) Any single emblem or charge in an escutcheon or
coat of arms -- commonly in the pl.
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A carriage covered with armorial bearings.
--Thackeray.
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9. (Naut.)
(a) The situation of a distant object, with regard to a
ship's position, as on the bow, on the lee quarter,
etc.; the direction or point of the compass in which
an object is seen; as, the bearing of the cape was W.
N. W.
(b) pl. The widest part of a vessel below the plank-sheer.
(c) pl. The line of flotation of a vessel when properly
trimmed with cargo or ballast.
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Ball bearings. See under Ball.
To bring one to his bearings, to bring one to his senses.
To lose one's bearings, to become bewildered.
To take bearings, to ascertain by the compass the position
of an object; to ascertain the relation of one object or
place to another; to ascertain one's position by reference
to landmarks or to the compass; hence (Fig.), to ascertain
the condition of things when one is in trouble or
perplexity.
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Syn: Deportment; gesture; mien; behavior; manner; carriage;
demeanor; port; conduct; direction; relation; tendency;
influence.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Bear \Bear\ (b[^a]r), v. t. [imp. Bore (b[=o]r) (formerly
Bare (b[^a]r)); p. p. Born (b[^o]rn), Borne (b[=o]rn);
p. pr. & vb. n. Bearing.] [OE. beren, AS. beran, beoran, to
bear, carry, produce; akin to D. baren to bring forth, G.
geb[aum]ren, Goth. ba['i]ran to bear or carry, Icel. bera,
Sw. b[aum]ra, Dan. b[ae]re, OHG. beran, peran, L. ferre to
bear, carry, produce, Gr. fe`rein, OSlav. brati to take,
carry, OIr. berim I bear, Skr. bh[.r] to bear. [root]92. Cf.
Fertile.]
1. To support or sustain; to hold up.
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2. To support and remove or carry; to convey.
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I 'll bear your logs the while. --Shak.
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3. To conduct; to bring; -- said of persons. [Obs.]
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Bear them to my house. --Shak.
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4. To possess and use, as power; to exercise.
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Every man should bear rule in his own house.
--Esther i.
22.
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5. To sustain; to have on (written or inscribed, or as a
mark), as, the tablet bears this inscription.
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6. To possess or carry, as a mark of authority or
distinction; to wear; as, to bear a sword, badge, or name.
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7. To possess mentally; to carry or hold in the mind; to
entertain; to harbor --Dryden.
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The ancient grudge I bear him. --Shak.
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8. To endure; to tolerate; to undergo; to suffer.
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Should such a man, too fond to rule alone,
Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne.
--Pope.
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I cannot bear
The murmur of this lake to hear. --Shelley.
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My punishment is greater than I can bear. --Gen. iv.
13.
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9. To gain or win. [Obs.]
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Some think to bear it by speaking a great word.
--Bacon.
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She was . . . found not guilty, through bearing of
friends and bribing of the judge. --Latimer.
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10. To sustain, or be answerable for, as blame, expense,
responsibility, etc.
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He shall bear their iniquities. --Is. liii.
11.
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Somewhat that will bear your charges. --Dryden.
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11. To render or give; to bring forward. "Your testimony
bear" --Dryden.
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12. To carry on, or maintain; to have. "The credit of bearing
a part in the conversation." --Locke.
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13. To admit or be capable of; that is, to suffer or sustain
without violence, injury, or change.
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In all criminal cases the most favorable
interpretation should be put on words that they can
possibly bear. --Swift.
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14. To manage, wield, or direct. "Thus must thou thy body
bear." --Shak. Hence: To behave; to conduct.
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Hath he borne himself penitently in prison? --Shak.
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15. To afford; to be to; to supply with.
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His faithful dog shall bear him company. --Pope.
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16. To bring forth or produce; to yield; as, to bear apples;
to bear children; to bear interest.
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Here dwelt the man divine whom Samos bore.
--Dryden.
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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.
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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."
--Marryat.
(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." --Shak.
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.] "C[ae]sar
doth bear me hard." --Shak.
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." --South.
(b) To corroborate; to confirm.
To bear up, to support; to keep from falling or sinking.
"Religious hope bears up the mind under sufferings."
--Addison.
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Syn: To uphold; sustain; maintain; support; undergo; suffer;
endure; tolerate; carry; convey; transport; waft.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
bearing
adj 1: (of a structural member) withstanding a weight or strain
[ant: nonbearing]
n 1: relevant relation or interconnection; "those issues have no
bearing on our situation"
2: the direction or path along which something moves or along
which it lies [syn: bearing, heading, aim]
3: dignified manner or conduct [syn: bearing, comportment,
presence, mien]
4: characteristic way of bearing one's body; "stood with good
posture" [syn: carriage, bearing, posture]
5: heraldry consisting of a design or image depicted on a shield
[syn: charge, bearing, heraldic bearing, armorial
bearing]
6: a rotating support placed between moving parts to allow them
to move easily
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
344 Moby Thesaurus words for "bearing":
Zeitgeist, action, actions, activity, acts, address, affectation,
affective meaning, aftermath, aim, air, air express, airfreight,
airlift, applicability, application, appositeness, aspect,
asportation, attitude, axis, azimuth, backing, ball bearing,
bearings, beck, beckon, behavior, behavior pattern,
behavioral norm, behavioral science, bent, bevel bearing, birthing,
body language, bolstering, boost, born, bracing, brow, bump,
bumper crop, bunt, burdened, bushing, butt, buttressing, calved,
carriage, carry, carrying, cartage, cast, cast of countenance,
celestial navigation, charade, chassis, childbearing, childbirth,
chironomy, color, coloring, complexion, comportment, concern,
concernment, conduct, connection, connotation, consequence,
conveyance, correlation, countenance, course, crop,
culture pattern, current, custom, dactylology, dead reckoning,
deaf-and-dumb alphabet, delivery, demeanor, denotation, deportment,
dig, direction, direction line, display, doing, doings, drayage,
drift, dropped, dumb show, effect, endurance, enduring, essence,
exposure, expressage, extension, face, facial appearance, favor,
feature, features, ferriage, fix, foaled, folkway, force, frame,
freight, freightage, front, frontage, fructiferous, fructification,
fruit, fruitbearing, fruiting, fruition, fulcrum, garb,
germaneness, gesticulation, gesture, gesture language, gestures,
gist, given birth, giving birth, glacial movement, goings-on,
grammatical meaning, guise, hand signal, harvest, hatched, haulage,
hauling, head, heading, headstock, helmsmanship, holding, hustle,
idea, impact, implication, import, inclination, infrastructure,
intension, interest, jab, jewel, jog, joggle, jolt, jostle,
kinesics, lay, lexical meaning, lie, lighterage, line,
line of direction, line of march, line of position, lineaments,
lines, literal meaning, look, looks, lugging, main current,
mainstream, maintaining, maintien, make, manner, manners,
materiality, meaning, method, methodology, methods, mien,
modus vivendi, motion, motions, mount, mounting, movement,
movements, moves, navigation, nee, needle bearing, newborn, nudge,
oarlock, observable behavior, orientation, output, overtone,
packing, pantomime, parturition, pattern, pertinence, physiognomy,
pilotage, piloting, pith, pivot, point, poise, poke, port, portage,
porterage, pose, position, position line, posture,
practical consequence, practice, praxis, presence, press, pressure,
procedure, proceeding, proceeds, prod, produce, producing, product,
production, propping, punch, purport, push, quarter, radio bearing,
railway express, range, range of meaning, real meaning, reference,
referent, regard, relatedness, relation, relationship, relevance,
respect, rest, resting point, roller bearing, rowlock, run, scope,
second crop, semantic cluster, semantic field, sense, set, setting,
shipment, shipping, shoring, shove, shrug, sign language,
significance, signification, significatum, signifie, skeleton,
social science, span of meaning, spirit, stance, stand, steerage,
steering, stillborn, stream, stress, structural meaning, style,
substance, sum, sum and substance, supporting, supportive,
suspensory, sustaining, sustentative, swing, symbolic meaning,
tactics, telpherage, tendency, tenor, the general tendency,
the main course, thole, tholepin, thrust, thrust bearing,
time spirit, tone, totality of associations, toting, track, traits,
transferred meaning, transport, transportation, transshipment,
trend, truckage, turn, unadorned meaning, underframe, undertone,
upholding, value, vintage, visage, waft, waftage, wagonage, way,
way of life, ways, whelped, yield, yielding