▪ I. abear, v.
(əˈbɛə(r))
Past and pple., as in bear, but now obs.
[OE. aberan, f. a- prefix 1 + beran bear.]
† 1. To bear, carry. Obs.
| a 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. xxiii. 4 Hefiᵹe byrðyna þe man aberan ne mæᵹ. c 1160 Hatt. Gosp. ibid. Hefiᵹe byrdene þe man abere ne mæᵹ. a 1200 Cotton Hom. 225 Þat flod wex and aber up þan arc. |
2. To endure, suffer; now always with cannot. A word of honorable antiquity, widely diffused in the dialects; in London reckoned as a vulgarism.
| c 885 K. ælfred Boeth. xxxix. 10 Hi ne maᵹon nán earfoða aberan. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 35 Heo [þe saule] ne mei abeoren alla þa sunne þe þe mon uppon hire deð. c 1230 Ancren Riwle 158 Þolemod is þe þet þuldeliche abereð wouh þet me deð him. 1836–7 Dickens Sketches (1850) 151/2 The young lady denied having formed any such engagements at all—she couldn't abear the men, they were such deceivers. 1855 Atkinson Whitby Glossary s.v. She cannot abear that man, very much dislikes him. 1861 Dickens Gt. Expect. I. vii. 96 He couldn't abear to be without us. 1864 Tennyson North. Farmer 64 I couldn abear to see it. |
† 3. refl. To comport or demean oneself. Obs.
| 1596 Spenser F.Q. v. xii. 19 So did the faerie knight himselfe abeare, And stouped oft his head from shame to shield. Ibid. vi. ix. 45 Thus did the gentle knight himselfe abeare. |
▪ II. † aˈbear, n. Obs. rare.
[f. the vb.]
Bearing, gesture, action, behaviour.
| c 1315 Shoreham Poems 60 And ȝef the man other that wyf By cheaunce doumbe were, ȝef may wyten hare assent By soum other abere. 1655 H. Vaughan Silex Scint (1858) ii. 149 I met with a dead man, Who, noting well my vain abear, Thus unto me began. |