Dictionary

bear out en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˌbɛəɹ ˈaʊt/

Etymology

From Middle English beren out, dissimilated from earlier Middle English outberen, equivalent to bear + out.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To corroborate, prove, or confirm; to demonstrate; to provide evidence for.
   • Time has borne McCarthy out; but see Schank (1983) for a plea that learning should now be reactivated as a central research topic. 1985, John Haugeland, Artificial Intelligence: The Very Idea, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 255:
   • It was a promising idea, but the evidence did not bear out their theory.
   • bear someone out on something
   • 'It looks like being simply a matter of finding this girl, if the conditions up there bear out his tale,' remarked George […] 1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries:
   • But the idea that Singapore is a deregulated paradise is not borne out by reality, as anyone who has tried to dispose of a piece of used chewing gum there will know. 2019 December 17, Howard Davies, “Will the UK really turn into 'Singapore-on-Thames' after Brexit?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
2. To maintain and support to the end; to defend to the last.
   • 'Tis Company only that can bear a Man out in an ill Thing 1694, Robert South, “Sermon V, VI., Rom I. 32”, in Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions. […], volume II, London: […] J[ohn] H[eptinstall] for Thomas Bennet […], →OCLC, page 249:
   • If, then, to meanest mariners, and renegades and castaways, I shall hereafter ascribe high qualities, though dark ; weave round them tragic graces ; if even the most mournful, perchance the most abased, among them all, shall at times lift himself to the exalted mounts ; if I shall touch that workman's arm with some ethereal light ; if I shall spread a rainbow over his disastrous set of sun ; then against all mortal critics bear me out in it, thou just spirit of Equality, which hast spread one royal mantle of humanity over all my kind ! Bear me out in it, thou great democratic God ! 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter XXVI, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 128:
3. (intransitive, of a horse) To move quickly and sharply in an outward direction during a race; to veer out.
   • That horse always bears out on the turns.

Forms

Translations (20)

fi vahvistaa (corroborate, prove, or confirm) · de bestätigen (corroborate, prove, or confirm) · fi siirtyä ulommas ((of horses) move quickly) · gl confirmar (corroborate, prove, or confirm) · cmn 證實 /证实 (corroborate, prove, or confirm) · fr confirmer (corroborate, prove, or confirm) · ca corroborar (corroborate, prove, or confirm) · fi kannatella (maintain and support to the end) · it confermare (corroborate, prove, or confirm) · cmn 堅持到底 /坚持到底 (maintain and support to the end) · it dare ragione (corroborate, prove, or confirm) · cmn 偏離賽道 /偏离赛道 ((of horses) move quickly) · ca confirmar (corroborate, prove, or confirm) · nl bevestigen (corroborate, prove, or confirm) · fi tukea (corroborate, prove, or confirm) · pt corroborar (corroborate, prove, or confirm) · es confirmar (corroborate, prove, or confirm) · pt confirmar (corroborate, prove, or confirm) · fr corroborer (corroborate, prove, or confirm) · es corroborar (corroborate, prove, or confirm)