gore

Less common meanings

6. 6
   between roadsnouncountable

   A triangular area of ground where two roads split or meet; in older or regional use, also a wedge of land left at the edge of an irregular field.

   The driver cut across the gore at the last second to make the exit.

   Engineers moved the light pole out of the gore to protect drivers who drift off the road.

   Note

   Chiefly a road engineer's word, though it can name any wedge of ground where roads fork. Highway manuals worry about two things in the gore: drivers changing lanes through it, and anything solid that has to stand in it. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • Highway guidance addresses drivers changing lanes through the gore. fhwa.dot.gov
   • Highway manuals address solid obstructions in the gore. txdot.gov
7. 7
   survey gapnounUScountable

   A small unincorporated tract that results when surveys conflict or a boundary is mismeasured.

   Because two old surveys never matched, a narrow gore was left between the townships.

   The state finally settled who owned the gore after decades of boundary disputes.

   Note

   Chiefly an American surveying term, born of mismatched surveys: where two lines of measurement fail to meet, a sliver of land ends up belonging to neither side. Unincorporated means outside the limits of any town or city, so such a gore has at most limited self-government, and some states run their gores directly. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

   • Surveying discrepancies can leave a strip of land between two towns that belongs administratively to neither. en.wikipedia.org
   • An unincorporated area, in this context, lies outside incorporated towns and cities. en.wikipedia.org
   • Such gores have limited self-government. en.wikipedia.org
   • State government directly administers gores in some states, including Maine. en.wikipedia.org
8. 8
   sew in wedgesverbtransitive

   To cut fabric into gores, or to shape a skirt, sail or similar item by fitting it with them.

   Sailmakers gore the big headsail so that it bellies out into a curve.

   The skirt was gored at the sides so it hung smoothly over the hips.

9. 9
   with a spearverbobsoletetransitive

   To pierce someone or something with any pointed object, such as a spear.

   The pikemen were ordered to gore any horse that broke through the line.

   One of the guards gored the intruder with a halberd before he reached the gate.

   Similarstab, spear

   Note

   Horns and tusks own the verb now, so using it for a spear, pike or halberd is the older, wider meaning and reads as deliberately archaic. Run through and jab are the everyday ways to say it; a man gored with a lance sounds consciously old-fashioned in modern prose. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

   • The verb has an older, broader sense covering piercing with pointed weapons. en.wiktionary.org
10. 10
    verbobsoletefigurativelytransitive or intransitive

    To needle someone or wound their feelings.

    Note

    A figurative stretch of the spear meaning, with hurtful words as the point driven in. It worked two ways: with a direct object (her taunts gored him) or with at (she gored at him all evening), much as people still pick at someone. Obsolete now, it will be heard as horns unless the words are named. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

    • The figurative verb could take a direct object or be used intransitively with at. en.wiktionary.org
11. 11
    nounobsoletecountable

    A large drop or mass of thickened blood.

    And I beheld the roof and the walls one gore of blood.

    1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance

    Note

    Here blood is counted as a lump instead of a substance: a gore of blood, gores of blood. The countable use is obsolete, so when E. R. Eddison writes "one gore of blood" in The Worm Ouroboros (1922), he is choosing an archaic turn on purpose; in ordinary modern prose gore stays a mass noun. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Gore has an obsolete countable sense meaning a lump or mass of blood, with plural gores. en.wiktionary.org
    • E. R. Eddison wrote The Worm Ouroboros, first published in 1922. en.wikisource.org
    • The exact phrase “one gore of blood” occurs in the novel, in dialogue spoken by Gro. en.wikisource.org
12. 12
    verbobsoletetransitive

    To cover or smear something with blood.

    Note

    An obsolete verb made from the blood noun: to gore something was to smear it red. A modern reader seeing gored will picture a wound from the horn-and-tusk verb, which is a separate word, so the old sense comes through only where the blood is spelled out, as in snow gored with blood. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • An obsolete transitive verb gore meant to cover or smear something with blood. en.wiktionary.org
    • The horn-and-tusk verb is etymologically distinct from the blood word; its origin ultimately involves the Old English word for spear. en.wiktionary.org
13. 13
    nounarchaicuncountable

    Dirt or filth, often in the form of dung or mud.

    As a sowe waloweth in the stynkynge gore pytte, or in the puddell.

    1508, John Fisher, Treatise concernynge the seven penytencyall Psalms

    Similarfilth, muck, dirt

    Note

    Only some dialects keep this sense now. John Fisher in 1508 pictures a sow wallowing "in the stynkynge gore pytte, or in the puddell": a muck pit, not a pool of blood. A modern reader takes almost any mention of gore as blood, so this meaning needs farmyard context to come through at all. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • The Fisher work containing the passage was published in 1508. en.wikipedia.org
    • John Fisher depicts a sow wallowing using the quoted wording. archive.org
    • The passage illustrates gore meaning muck or filth; the muck-pit interpretation follows from this sense and context. en.wiktionary.org
14. 14
    noun

    A heraldic charge outlined by two inward-curving lines that run from the middle of the base and from one upper corner of the shield to meet at its center.