[OE. *barian (in abarian), f. bær BARE a.; cf. also bęrian, ON. bera, OHG. barôn.]
1. trans. To make or lay bare, uncover, open to view; to unsheathe (a weapon).
a. 1000. Beowulf, 2482. Benc-þelu beredon.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1878. Þorow a fowel ., may we knaw if þe erþ barid be.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., IV. 14. The pith to bare is not thaire kynde.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., I. iii. 49. And thus vnbraced … Haue bar’d my Bosome to the Thunder-stone.
a. 1725. Pope, Odyss., XIX. 526. His tusks … the sinewy fibres tore, And bared the bone.
1876. Green, Short Hist., iv. § 5 (1882), 197. Earl Warrenne bared a rusty sword.
1884. Tennyson, Becket, 133. He bows, he bares his head.
2. fig. To disclose, reveal, make manifest.
[c. 1000. Ælfric, Joshua ii. 20. Gif ðú abarast úre sprǽce.]
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 1912. His fader he it gan vn-hillen & baren.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1149. Þat watz bared in Babyloyn.
a. 1652. Brome, City Wit, IV. ii. To fall out and bare one anothers secrets.
1764. Goldsm., Trav., 390. Tear off reserve, and bare my swelling heart.
1822. B. Cornwall, Julian Apost. They did bare the secrets of the grave.
3. To strip, divest. Const. of, from.
c. 1440. Hylton, Scala Perf. (W. de W., 1494), II. xx. Vntyll a soule can … baren [bareyn 1533] hym from all the good dedes that he dooth.
1443. Hen. VI., in Ellis, Orig. Lett., III. 34, I. 80. Werres … haue bared vs gretely of tresore.
1563. Sackville, Myrr. Mag., Induct. 2. With blustring blastes had al ybared the treen.
1857. Livingstone, Trav., xix. 367. He quite bared his garden in feeding us.
1858. J. Martineau, Stud. Chr., 42. Stripped of every disguise, and bared of all that is conventional.
