adj
Meaning 1
Dim; unclear from water or rheum.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
blear
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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Australian, Received-Pronunciation: /blɪə/
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British, Southern, Standard: /ˈblɪː/
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British, Southern, Standard: /ˈblɪjə/
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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US: /blɪɹ/
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New-Zealand: /bliə/
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Scotland: /bliɾ/
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Scotland: [bliˌɾ]
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/blɛː/ East Anglia, cheer–chair merger
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rhymes with -ɪə(ɹ)
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homophone: blare (cheer–chair merger)
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homophone: Blair (cheer–chair merger)
adj
Meaning 2
Causing or caused by dimness of sight.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 3
To be blear; to have blear eyes; to look or gaze with blear eyes.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
Examples
- 18th c., attributed to Jonathan Swift, “The Story of Orpheus, Burlesqued,” in Walter Scott (ed.), The Works of Jonathan Swift, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 2nd edition, 1883, Volume 10, p. 403, Orpheus, a one-eyed blearing Thracian, The crowder of that barb’rous nation, Was ballad-singer by vocation;
- 1917, Madge Morris, The “Red Wind Blows” in The Lure of the Desert Land and Other Poems, San Francisco: Har Wagner, p. 83, Let loose thy snow-winged dove, to rise And fly across the seething blood-mad world. To flutter over fields where that dread Silence is! To light on upturned faces blearing at the skies And curiously peck at dead men’s eyes.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 4
To make (usually the eyes or eyesight) blurred or dim.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 5
To blur, make blurry.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
Examples
- 1888, David Atwood Wasson, “Babes of God” Part II in Poems, Boston: Lee & Shepard, p. 36, Now, one among the foremost, looking up By chance, with horror saw, in farthest sky Fronting their course, a troublous film of cloud,— A strange, dark, troublous film of cloud,— Blearing the beauty of the crystal wall.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 6
Alternative form of blare
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: alt-of, alternative
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adjective satellite
Meaning 7
tired to the point of exhaustion
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: bleary, bleary-eyed, blear-eyed
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 8
make dim or indistinct
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- The fog blurs my vision
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: blur
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: change, alter, modify
History
Etymology
From Middle English blere, related to Low German bleeroged (“bleareyed”), Middle High German blerre (“double vision”), German Blerre (“double vision”). Perhaps also related to blur.
From Middle English bleren, from Old English *blerian.
From Middle English bleren, from Old English *blǣran, related to West Frisian blearje (“to bleat, shout”), Dutch bleren, blaren (“to bellow, bleat”), German Low German blaren, blarren (“to blare, howl, shriek”), German plärren (“to howl, shriek, blare”).
Across languages
Translations
8 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Bulgarian: замъглен (zamǎglen) — dim
- Bulgarian: неясен (nejasen) — dim
- Polish: mętny — dim
- Polish: kaprawy — dim
- Bulgarian: замъглявам (zamǎgljavam) — make blurred or dim
- Māori: whakamakaro — make blurred or dim
- Polish: zamglić — make blurred or dim
- Russian: затума́нивать (zatumánivatʹ) — make blurred or dim