Past and pple., as in BEAR, but now obs. [OE. aberan, f. A- pref. 1 + beran BEAR.]
† 1. To bear, carry. Obs.
a. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. xxiii. 4. Hefiʓe byrðyna þe man aberan ne mæʓ.
c. 1160. Hatt. Gosp., ibid. Hefiʓe byrdene þe man abere ne mæʓ.
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 maʓon 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, Great Expec., I. vii. 96. He couldn’t abear to be without us.
1864. Tennyson, Northern 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.
