Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BEAR, v.i.

1. To suffer, as with pain. But man is born to bear. – Pope. This is unusual in prose; and though admissible, is rendered intransitive, merely by the omission of pain, or other word expressive of evil.
2. To be patient; to endure. I can not, can not bear. – Dryden. To also seems to be elliptical.
3. To produce, as fruit; to be fruitful, in opposition to barrenness. This age to blossom, and the next to bear. – Dryden. Here fruit must be understood.
4. To take effect; to succeed; as, to bring matters to bear. – Guardian.
5. To act in any character. Instruct me how I may bear like a true friar. [Unusual.] – Shak.
6. To be situated as to the point of compass, with respect to something else; as, the land bore E. N. E. from the ship.
7. To have weight on the neck by the yoke, as oxen attached to the neap of a cart.
8. To bear away, in navigation, is to change the course of a ship, when close hauled, or sailing with a side wind, and make her run before the wind. To bear up, is used in a like sense, froin the act of bearing up the helm to the windward. – Mar. Dict. Hence, perhaps, in other cases, the expression may be used to denote tending or moving from.
9. To bear down, is to drive or tend to; to approach with a fair wind; as, the fleet bore down upon the enemy.
10. To bear in, is to run or tend toward; as, a ship bears in with the land; opposed to bear off, or keeping at a greater distance.
11. To bear up, is to tend or move toward; as, to bear up to one another: also, to be supported; to have fortitude; to be firm; not to sink; as, to bear up under afflictions.
12. To bear upon, or against, is to lean upon or against; to act on as weight or force, in any direction, as a column upon its base, or the sides of two inclining objects against each other.
13. To bear against, to approach for attack or seizure; as, a lion bears against his prey. – Dryden.
14. To bear upon, to act upon; as, the artillery bore upon the center; or to be pointed or situated so as to affect; as, to bring or plant guns so as to bear upon a fort, or a ship.
15. To bear with, to endure what is unpleasing; to be indulgent; to forbear to resent, oppose, or punish. Reason would I should bear with you. – Acts xviii. Shall not God avenge his elect, though he bear long with them? – Luke xviii.