Emily Dickinson Lexicon

ORE, n. [Sax. ore, ora; D. erts; G. erz. Qu. L. æs, æris, brass; Rabbinic, עור, a mineral.]

1. The compound of a metal and some other substance, as oxygen, sulphur or carbon, called its mineralizer, by which its properties are disguised or lost. Metals found free from such combination and exhibiting naturally their appropriate character, are not called ores, but native metals. D. Olmsted.
2. Metal; as, the liquid ore. Milton.