rear
Part of speech: verb
adj
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: anatomy
government
medicine
military
politics
sciences
war
Etymology: From Middle English reren (“to raise”), from Old English rǣran (“to raise, set upright, promote, exalt, begin, create, give rise to, excite, rouse, arouse, stir up”), from Proto-West Germanic *raiʀijan, from Proto-Germanic *raizijaną, *raisijaną (“to cause to rise, raise”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rey- (“to lift oneself, rise”).
Cognate with Scots rere (“to construct, build, rear”), Icelandic reisa (“to raise”), Gothic 𐍂𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌾𐌰𐌽 (raisjan, “to cause to rise, lift up, establish”), German reisen (“to travel”, literally “to rear up and depart”); and a doublet of raise. More at rise.
Related to rise and raise, which is used for several of its now archaic or obsolete senses and for some of its senses that are currently more common in other dialects of English.
Inflected forms:
form: rears
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: rearing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: reared
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: reared
pos: verb
tags: past
form: reer
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: rere
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: rare
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: rears
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To bring up to maturity, as offspring; to educate; to instruct; to foster.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: He wants a father to protect his youth, and rear him up to virtue.
gloss: To breed and raise.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The family has been rearing cattle for 200 years.
gloss: To rise up on the hind legs.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The horse was shocked, and thus reared.
gloss: To get angry.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
usually
gloss: To rise high above, tower above.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: By my side reared a solid stone wall, and beneath was simply the room we stood in, for the space below the stairway was not enclosed.
gloss: To raise physically or metaphorically; to lift up; to cause to rise, to elevate.
pos: verb
tags: literary
transitive
examples: Poverty reared its ugly head. (appeared, started, began to have an effect)
The monster slowly reared its head.
In adoration at his feet I fell Submiss; he reared me.
Mine [shall be] the first hand to rear her banner.
gloss: To construct by building; to set up
pos: verb
tags: rare
transitive
examples: to rear defenses or houses
to rear one government on the ruins of another.
One reared a font of stone.
gloss: To raise spiritually; to lift up; to elevate morally.
pos: verb
tags: rare
transitive
examples: It reareth our hearts from vain thoughts.
gloss: To lift and take up.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: And hauing her from Trompart lightly reard, / Vpon his Courser set the louely lode,
gloss: To rouse; to strip up.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: And seeks the tusky boar to rear.
gloss: Being behind, or in the hindmost part; hindmost.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: the rear rank of a company
sit in the rear seats of a car
gloss: The back or hindmost part; that which is behind, or last in order.
pos: noun
examples: Nipt with the lagging rear of winters froſt.
gloss: Specifically, the part of an army or fleet which comes last, or is stationed behind the rest.
pos: noun
examples: When the fierce Foe hung on our brok'n Rear
gloss: The buttocks or bottom.
pos: noun
Antonyms: front
Derived words: childrearing
corear
misrear
raring
rearing bit
rear one's head
rear one's ugly head
rear up
unreared
uprear
in the rear with the gear
my rear
Translations: