Forms: 1 bera, 2–7 bere, (3 beore, ? bore, 4 beeyr, 4–5 beere, 5 barre, beer, 6 Sc. beir, 6–7 beare, 7 bare), 7– bear. [OE. bera = OHG. bero, pero, MHG. ber, mod.G. bär, MDu. bere, Du. beer:—OTeut. *beron-. The ON. björn:—*bern-oz seems to be an extended form. Supposed by Fick to be cogn. with L. ferus wild, as if ‘the wild beast’ of northern nations.]
I. 1. A heavily built, thick-furred plantigrade quadruped, of the genus Ursus; belonging to the Carnivora, but having teeth partly adapted to a vegetable diet.
The best-known species are the Brown Bear of Europe (U. arctos), the White or Polar Bear (U. maritimus), the Grizzly Bear (U. horribilis or ferox) and Black Bear (U. Americanus) of North America, and the Syrian Bear (U. Syriacus), mentioned in the Bible; there are remains of fossil species, some larger than any now known.
c. 1000. Ælfric, On O. T., in Sweet, Reader, 66. Dauid … ʓewylde ðone wildan beran.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 211. Ech man is efned to þe deore þe he nimeð after geres … sum bere, sum leun.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. liii. (1495), 813. Whan beeyrs ben syke they seke amptes and deuoure them. Ibid., cxii. 854. The beer can wonderly stye vpon trees.
c. 1420. Anturs of Arth., x. Thus were the grehondes a-gast of the gryme bere.
1501. Douglas, Pal. Hon., III. xxvii. Dauid I saw slay baith lyoun and beir.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., II. i. 29. I would … Plucke the yong sucking Cubs from the she Beare.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, II. 24. Their attire is the skinnes of Beares.
1733. Pope, Horace’ Sat., II. i. 87. Tis a Bear’s talent not to kick but hug.
1860. Gosse, Rom. Nat. Hist., 62. The white bear seated on a solitary iceberg in the Polar Sea.
b. in proverbial phrases, referring to the habits of bears, and to the obsolete sport of bear-baiting.
Are you there with your bears? = ‘Are you there again, or at it again?’ is explained by Joe Miller as the exclamation of a man who, not liking a sermon he had heard on Elisha and the bears, went next Sunday to another church, only to find the same preacher and the same discourse.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 17. With as good will as a beare goth to the stake. Ibid., 54. As handsomly as a beare picketh muscles.
1589. Pappe w. Hatchet (1844), 16. Swarmd … like beares to a honie pot.
1601. Dent, Pathw. Heauen, 62. To put his finger into the Lions mouth, and … take the Beare by the tooth.
1602. Fulbecke, 1st Pt. Parall., 28. A man should deuide honie with a Beare.
1736. Bailey, s.v., You dare as well take a Bear by the Tooth, That is, You dare not attempt it.
1742. Richardson, Pamela, III. 335. O ho, Nephew! are you thereabouts with your Bears?
1820. Scott, Abbot, xv. ‘Marry come up—are you there with your Bears?’ muttered the Dragon.
1830. Marryat, King’s Own, xxvi. As savage as a bear with a sore head.
1831. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), I. 485. Not fit to carry garbage to a bear.
1858. Sat. Rev., 7 Aug., 139. You must not sell the skin till you have shot the bear [cf. II].
c. fig.
a. 1230. Ancr. R., 202. Þe Bore [? bere, beore] of heui Slouhðe haueð þeos hweolpes.
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 58. Þe bere of glotonie romis a bout … for to fille þe wombe.
1591. Spenser, Ruines Time, 66. What nowe is of th’ Assyrian Lyonesse?… What of the Persian Beares outragiousnesse?
2. fig. A rough, unmannerly, or uncouth person. To play the bear: to behave rudely and roughly. Also in obs. colloquial sense: see quot. 1832.
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 473/1. When we haue so turned all order vpsidowne … there is nothing but … playing the beare amongst vs.
1751. Chesterf., Lett., III. cclxii. 202. The French people of learning … are not bears as most of ours are.
1832. Legends Lond., II. 247. When I was the youthful Bear—as the disciple of a Private Tutor is called at Oxford.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 51. This great soldier … was no better than a Low Dutch bear.
3. Astr. Name given to two constellations in the northern hemisphere known respectively as the ‘Great Bear,’ and ‘Lesser Bear.’
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VIII. xxxv. Alwey þoo sterres wyndeþ and turneþ rounde aboute þat lyne, þat is calde Axis, as a bere aboute þe stake. And þerfore þat cercle is clepid þe more bear.
1551. Recorde, Cast. Knowl. (1556), 263. The moste northerly constellation is the lesser Beare … Nigh vnto it is the greater Beare.
1632. Milton, Penseroso, 85. Where I may oft outwatch the Bear.
1868. Lockyer, Heavens (ed. 3), 320. Between the Great Bear and Cassiopeia is the Little Bear.
4. In New South Wales, the local name of the Phaseolarctos, a Marsupial animal allied to the Phalangers, called by the natives Koala or ‘Biter.’
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 314. By the colonists this animal is usually termed the native Bear or Monkey.
5. Sea-bear: popular name of a species of seal.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 202. Several species of Seal are known under the names of Sea-Lion, Sea-Bear, &c.
1883. Flower, in Glasgow Weekly Her., 14 July, 8/1.
6. A rough mat for wiping boots on; a block covered with shaggy matting, used for scrubbing the decks of vessels.
1795. J. Aikin, Manchester, 349. The making [by the blind] of … white and tarred bears, foot-cloths, [etc.].
1793. D. Johnston, Serm. for Blind, 18–9. Making … rope-bears for cleaning the feet at our doors.
7. A machine for punching holes.
1869. Sir E. Reed, Ship Build., xx. 446. The holes which come in the plate-edges are usually punched by a bear.
b. Other technical uses: see quot.
1864. Reader, No. 85. 203/3. A machine called the bear, which sheltered a number of archers.
1871. Trans. Amer. Inst. Min. Engineers, I. 112. Metallic iron, not finding heat enough in a lead furnace … congeals in the hearth, and forms what smelters term ‘sows,’ ‘bears,’ ‘horses.’
II. 8. Stock Exchange. A speculator for a fall; i.e., one who sells stock for delivery at a future date, in the expectation that meanwhile prices will fall, and he will be able to buy in at a lower rate what he has contracted to deliver at a higher. Formerly, The stock so contracted to be delivered, in the phrase ‘to buy’ or ‘sell the bear;’ see b.
[As applied to stock thus sold, bear appears early in 18th c., and was common at the time of the South Sea Bubble. The term ‘bearskin jobber,’ then applied to the dealer now called the ‘bear,’ makes it probable that the original phrase was ‘sell the bearskin,’ and that it originated in the well-known proverb, ‘To sell the bear’s skin before one has caught the bear.’ The associated BULL appears somewhat later and was perhaps suggested by bear.]
a. 1719. Anat. Change Alley [in N. & Q., 1876, Ser. V. VI. 118. Those who buy Exchange Alley Bargains are styled] buyers of Bear-skins.
1726. De Foe, Hist. Devil (1822), 238. Every secret cheat, every bear-skin jobber.
b. 1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 38, ¶ 3. Being at that General Mart of Stock-Jobbers called Jonathans … he bought the bear of another officer. Ibid., ¶ 5. I fear the Word Bear is hardly to be understood among the polite People; but I take the meaning to be, That one who ensures a Real Value upon an Imaginary Thing, is said to sell a Bear.
1714. C. Johnson, Country Lasses, I. i. Instead of changing honest staple for Gold and Silver, you deal in Bears and Bulls.
1720. Pope, Inscr. Punch Bowl in South-Sea Year (Globe ed.), 490. Come fill the South Sea goblet full; The gods shall of our stock take care: Europa pleased accepts the bull, And Jove with joy puts off the bear.
1721. Cibber, Refusal, Wks. 1754, I. 41 (from end). And all this out of Change-Alley? Every Shilling, Sir, all out of Stocks, Tuts, Bulls, Rams, Bears, and Bubbles.
1731. Bailey, To sell a Bear [among Stock-jobbers], to sell what one hath not.
c. 1744. Lond. Mag., 86. These noisy Devotees were false ones, and in Fact were only Bulls and Bears.
1762. Gentl. Mag., 18. In contracts for time, he who contracts to sell is called the bear.
1865. Standard, 23 Feb., 5/3. The ‘bear’ party at the Paris Bourse plucked up courage to-day.
1881. Chicago Times, 30 April. The bears made a strong fight against an advance.
III. Comb. 9. General relations, chiefly attrib., as bear-dance, -fight, -hide, -kin, -meat, -whelp.
a. 1230. Ancr. R., 202. Þes laste bore hweolp is grimmest of alle. Ibid., 296. Þe deouel is beorekunnes.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., IV. i. 96. But if you hunt these Beare-whelpes, then beware: The Dam will wake.
1825. Scott, Betrothed (1860), 349. Stretch thyself on the bear-hide, and sleep.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. 311. Bear-meat, seal, walrus.
1859. Masson, Milton, I. iv. 113. They [students] were forbidden … to be present at boxing-matches, skittle-playings, dancings, bear-fights, cock-fights, and the like.
10. Special combinations: † bear-ape, obsolete name of an American ape (see quot.); bear-bait = BEAR-BAITING; bear-brat, contemptuous epithet = bear’s cub; bear(’s)-breech, popular name of the genus Acanthus, Brank-ursine; bear-bug, variant of BUG-BEAR; † bear-claw (= bear’s-breech); bear-dog, one used in hunting or baiting bears; bear’s-ear, popular name of the AURICULA (sense 3); bear’s-ear sanicle, herbalists’ name of Cortusa matthioli; † bear-fell, a bear-skin; bear-garden, a place originally set apart for the baiting of bears, and used for the exhibition of other rough sports, fig. a scene of strife and tumult; bear’s-garlic, popular name of Allium Ursinum or Ramsons; bear’s-grease, the fat of the bear, used esp. in medical and cosmetic preparations; bear-hound (= bear-dog); bear-leader, formerly a ludicrous name for a travelling tutor, cf. sense 2 above; bear’s-muck (see quot.); bear-play, rough tumultuous behavior; bear-warden = BEAR-WARD; † bear-wolf, a vigorous term of opprobrium; † bear-worm, obsolete name of a hairy caterpillar, or ‘woolly-bear.’
Also BEAR-BAITING, -BERRY, -FOOT, -SKIN, -WARD.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 15. Of the *Bear-Ape Arctopithecus. His belly hangeth very low, his head and face like unto a childs.
c. 1590. in Chetham Misc., V, Maigames, rushbearings, *bearebaites.
1583. Stanyhurst, Epitaphs, 159. Thee *bearbrat boucher thy corps with villenye mangled.
1565. Golding, Ovid’s Met., XIII. (1593), 315. A traile of flowres of *bearbrich.
1736. Bailey, Houshold Dict., 71. *Bears breech or Brank Ursine, is an herb of singular use in physick, for … the gout and cramp.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 194. They put on blacke scrafs, and go like *beare buggis.
1589. Fleming, Virg. Eclog., iii. 8. Compassed about the eares with tender *beare-claw [leaues].
1673. Lond. Gaz., No. 763/4. A Blew brinded *Bear Dog of about three quarters old.
1597. Gerard, Herball, II. cclxii. 640. There be diuers sorts of Mountaine Cowslips, or *Beares eares.
1671. Grew, Anat. Plants, I. (1682), 31. Sometimes single, as in Beares-Ears.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 2430. Wiþ hem boþe *bere felles þei bere in here armes.
1596. J. Norden, Progr. Pietie (1847), 177. And go to the … *bear-gardens … where they lose their time … and offend the laws … of her majesty.
1687. Settle, Refl. Dryden’s Plays, 33. Our Beargarden Duellers.
1743. Wesley, in Wks., 1782, I. 439. One of them having been a prize-fighter at the bear-garden.
1803. Bristed, Pedest. Tour, II. 543. Squabbles and boxings … rendering the place more like a *bear-garden than a hall of instruction.
1611. Cotgr., Ail d’ours, Ramsons … *Beares garlicke.
1863. Prior, Plant-n., 17. Bear’s-garlick, so called, says Tabernæmontanus, quia ursi eo delectantur.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., I. 838. And evry tole in *beres grees defoule.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 103. Wild Rose leaues reduced into a liniment with Beares grease.
1843. Thackeray, Irish Sk. Bk. (1863), 286. A tuft on the chin may be had at a small expense of bear’s grease, by persons of a proper age.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. III. i. 80. The Wolfhounds shall fall suppressed, the *Bearhounds, the Falconry.
1749. H. Walpole, Lett. H. Mann, 202 (1834), II. 283. She takes me for his *bear-leader, his travelling governor.
1846. Clarke, in Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., VII. II. 517. The ‘dead peat,’ commonly called *‘bear’s muck.’
1883. Pall Mall Gaz., 14 June., 2/2. That the university would not degrade itself in the eyes of the visitors by *bear-play.
1884. Besant, in Contemp. Rev., March, 343. The *bear-warden’s fiddle.
1545. Brinklow, Complaynt (1874), 89. Turne your chauntries and your obbetes from the profite of these *berewolues whelpes.
1608. Topsell, Serpents, 667. These Caterpillers … by reason of their roughnesse and ruggednesse, some call them *Bear-worms.
