- 1 English
- 1.1 Pronunciation
- 1.2 Etymology 1
- 1.3 Etymology 2
- 1.4 Etymology 3
- 1.5 Etymology 4
- 1.6 Anagrams
- 2 Latin
- 3 Swedish
- (General American) IPA(key): /ɹɪɹ/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɹɪə/
Audio (US) (file)
- Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
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-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.
- (transitive) To bring up to maturity, as offspring; to educate; to instruct; to foster. ("Raise" is more common in American English.)
- (transitive, said of people towards animals) To breed and raise. (Less common than "raise" in American English.)
The family has been rearing cattle for 200 years.
- (intransitive) To rise up on the hind legs
The horse was shocked, and thus reared.
- (intransitive, usually with "up") To get angry.
- (intransitive) To rise high above, tower above.
- (transitive, literary) To raise physically or metaphorically; to lift up; to cause to rise, to elevate.
- Poverty reared its ugly head. (appeared, started, began to have an effect)
- The monster slowly reared its head.
- (transitive, rare) To construct by building; to set up
- to rear defenses or houses
- to rear one government on the ruins of another.
- (transitive, rare) To raise spiritually; to lift up; to elevate morally.
- (transitive, obsolete) To lift and take up.
- (transitive, obsolete) To rouse; to strip up.
- It is standard US English to raise children, and this usage has become common in all kinds of English since the 1700s. Until fairly recently, however, US teachers taught the traditional rule that one should raise crops and animals, but rear children, despite the fact that this contradicted general usage. It is therefore not surprising that some people still prefer to rear children and that this is considered correct but formal in US English. It is widespread in UK English and not considered formal.
- It is generally considered incorrect to rear crops or (adult) animals in US English, but this expression is common in UK English.
- (rise up on the hind legs): prance
From Middle English reren, from Old English hrēran (“to move, shake, agitate”), from Proto-Germanic *hrōzijaną (“to stir”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱera-, *ḱrā- (“to mix, stir, cook”). Cognate with Dutch roeren (“to stir, shake, whip”), German rühren (“to stir, beat, move”), Swedish röra (“to touch, move, stir”), Icelandic hræra (“to stir”).
- (transitive) To move; stir.
- (transitive, of geese) To carve.
- Rere that goose!
- (regional, obsolete) To revive, bring to life, quicken. (only in the phrase, to rear to life)
He healeth the blind and he reareth to life the dead.(Speculum Sacerdotale c. 15th century)
- In the third sense, the more common variant of to rear to life is to raise to life. “I pray you, Declan, servant of God, that in the name of Christ you would raise to life for me the seven hostages whom I held in bondage from the chieftains of Munster." (Life of Saint Declan of Ardmore By Saint Declan of Ardmore, Aeterna Press, 2015.)
From Middle English rere, from Old English hrēr, hrēre (“not thoroughly cooked, underdone, lightly boiled”), from hrēran (“to move, shake, agitate”), from Proto-Germanic *hrōzijaną (“to stir”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱera-, *ḱrā- (“to mix, stir, cook”). Related to Old English hrōr (“stirring, busy, active, strong, brave”), Dutch roeren (“to stir, shake, whip”), German rühren (“to stir, beat, move”), Swedish röra (“to touch, move, stir”), Icelandic hræra (“to stir”).
rear (not comparable)
- Being behind, or in the hindmost part; hindmost
the 'rear rank of a company
sit in the 'rear seats of a car
- (Britain, dialect) early; soon
rear (plural rears)
- The back or hindmost part; that which is behind, or last on order; - opposed to front.
- (military) Specifically, the part of an army or fleet which comes last, or is stationed behind the rest.
- (Can we date this quote?) Milton
- When the fierce foe hung on our broken rear.
- (Can we date this quote?) Milton
- (anatomy) The buttocks, a creature's bottom
- (buttocks): rear end
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
- To place in the rear; to secure the rear of.
- (transitive, vulgar, Britain) To sodomize (perform anal sex)
- rear admiral
- rear echelon
- rear end
- rear front - (military), the rear rank of a body of troops when faced about and standing in that position.
- rear guard
- rear line - (military), the line in the rear of an army.
- rear rank - (military), the rank or line of a body of troops which is in the rear, or last in order.
- rear sight - (firearms), the sight nearest the breech.
- bring up the rear - to come last or behind.
- rearing bit - a bit designed to prevent a horse from lifting his head when rearing.
- present tense of rea.