Dictionary entry

Bore (3)

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Bore (bōr), n. 1. A hole made by boring; a perforation.

2. The internal cylindrical cavity of a gun, cannon, pistol, or other firearm, or of a pipe or tube.

The bores of wind instruments.

Bacon.

Love's counselor should fill the bores of hearing.

Shak.

3. The size of a hole; the interior diameter of a tube or gun barrel; the caliber.

4. A tool for making a hole by boring, as an auger.

5. Caliber; importance.

Yet are they much too light for the bore of the matter.

Shak.

6. A person or thing that wearies by prolixity or dullness; a tiresome person or affair; any person or thing which causes ennui.

It is as great a bore as to hear a poet read his own verses.

Hawthorne.