Definition of wear

• n. - Same as Weir.
• v. t. - To cause to go about, as a vessel, by putting the helm up, instead of alee as in tacking, so that the vessel's bow is turned away from, and her stern is presented to, the wind, and, as she turns still farther, her sails fill on the other side; to veer.
• v. t. - To carry or bear upon the person; to bear upon one's self, as an article of clothing, decoration, warfare, bondage, etc.; to have appendant to one's body; to have on; as, to wear a coat; to wear a shackle.
• v. t. - To have or exhibit an appearance of, as an aspect or manner; to bear; as, she wears a smile on her countenance.
• v. t. - To use up by carrying or having upon one's self; hence, to consume by use; to waste; to use up; as, to wear clothes rapidly.
• v. t. - To impair, waste, or diminish, by continual attrition, scraping, percussion, on the like; to consume gradually; to cause to lower or disappear; to spend.
• v. t. - To cause or make by friction or wasting; as, to wear a channel; to wear a hole.
• v. t. - To form or shape by, or as by, attrition.
• v. i. - To endure or suffer use; to last under employment; to bear the consequences of use, as waste, consumption, or attrition; as, a coat wears well or ill; -- hence, sometimes applied to character, qualifications, etc.; as, a man wears well as an acquaintance.
• v. i. - To be wasted, consumed, or diminished, by being used; to suffer injury, loss, or extinction by use or time; to decay, or be spent, gradually.
• n. - The act of wearing, or the state of being worn; consumption by use; diminution by friction; as, the wear of a garment.
• n. - The thing worn; style of dress; the fashion.
• n. - A dam in a river to stop and raise the water, for the purpose of conducting it to a mill, forming a fish pond, or the like.
• n. - A fence of stakes, brushwood, or the like, set in a stream, tideway, or inlet of the sea, for taking fish.
• n. - A long notch with a horizontal edge, as in the top of a vertical plate or plank, through which water flows, -- used in measuring the quantity of flowing water.