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Wear out   /wɛr aʊt/   Listen
verb
Wear  v. t.  (past wore; past part. worn; pres. part. wearing)  
1.
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. "What compass will you wear your farthingale?" "On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore, Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore."
2.
To have or exhibit an appearance of, as an aspect or manner; to bear; as, she wears a smile on her countenance. "He wears the rose of youth upon him." "His innocent gestures wear A meaning half divine."
3.
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.
4.
To impair, waste, or diminish, by continual attrition, scraping, percussion, on the like; to consume gradually; to cause to lower or disappear; to spend. "That wicked wight his days doth wear." "The waters wear the stones."
5.
To cause or make by friction or wasting; as, to wear a channel; to wear a hole.
6.
To form or shape by, or as by, attrition. "Trials wear us into a liking of what, possibly, in the first essay, displeased us."
To wear away, to consume; to impair, diminish, or destroy, by gradual attrition or decay.
To wear off, to diminish or remove by attrition or slow decay; as, to wear off the nap of cloth.
To wear on or To wear upon, to wear. (Obs.) "(I) weared upon my gay scarlet gites (gowns.)"
To wear out.
(a)
To consume, or render useless, by attrition or decay; as, to wear out a coat or a book.
(b)
To consume tediously. "To wear out miserable days."
(c)
To harass; to tire. "(He) shall wear out the saints of the Most High."
(d)
To waste the strength of; as, an old man worn out in military service.
To wear the breeches. See under Breeches. (Colloq.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Wear out" Quotes from Famous Books



... as well as privilege to perfect our constitution, and see that it does not wear out too soon, that we are not prematurely called away from our duties. And I bring it as serious charge against modern systems of education, that they tend to degenerate mankind, to impair the constitution and to shorten life. That we should not submit to this, but should all aspire ...
— Buchanan's Journal of Man, September 1887 - Volume 1, Number 8 • Various

... suffer? You find your subject, you wear out your wits over it with toiling at night, you throw your very life into it: and after all your journeyings in the fields of thought, the monument reared with your life-blood is simply a good or a bad speculation for a publisher. Your work will sell or it will not sell; and therein, for them, ...
— Lost Illusions • Honore De Balzac

... only encourage the commonality to keep late hours; and that the gentry were in no need of any thing of the sort, having their own handsome glass lanterns, with two candles in them, garnished and adorned with clippit paper; an equipage which he prophesied would soon wear out of fashion when lamps were once introduced, and the which prediction I have lived to see verified; for certainly, now-a-days, except when some elderly widow lady, or maiden gentlewoman, wanting the help and protection of man, happens to be out at her tea and supper, a tight and snod ...
— The Provost • John Galt

... not see at once, the heaviest foot that ever trod cannot wear out the everlasting flint? or that he who does not think has no thoughts in him? or that repentance can avail nothing when a man has not repentance? yet let these passages appear, with a casting weight of allowance, and their absurdity will not be so extravagant, ...
— The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753),Vol. V. • Theophilus Cibber

... Thompson, I wouldn't encourage her in that way of doing. Maybe it seems like prejudiced advice, coming from a dressmaker, so, but I never could see there was any saving in hanging a dress away in the closet and not getting any wear out of it, till it was clear out of style. You know how it is with young wives. They've got their hearts so set on having their husbands praise 'em for being saving that they make those little mistakes. You just tell her that you'd rather spend a little more money, if it came to that, ...
— Other People's Business - The Romantic Career of the Practical Miss Dale • Harriet L. Smith


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