pore

Pluralpores

Formspores, poring, pored

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A tiny opening in the surface of the skin.

   Cold water can make the pores on your face tighten.

   When a pore gets clogged with oil, a blemish often forms.

   Note

   The word came from Greek póros, "passage," and reached English through Latin and Old French. English already had its own plain names for the thing. One was sweat hole, which may continue Old English swātþȳrel. Another, which competed with it, was līcþēote, literally "body pipe." Pore displaced both, though sweat hole still stands as a synonym. In everyday speech the word mostly comes in the plural, as in sweat pouring from your pores.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To study something closely and carefully, going over it again and again.

   Detectives pore over witness statements looking for inconsistencies.

   He pored over the recipe to make sure he had every step right.

   Similarstudy, scrutinize, examine, peruse

   Oppositeskim

   Note

   Despite the spelling, this is a separate word from the skin's pore. It comes from Middle English poren, "to gaze intently, look closely." It almost always takes over: Mary Shelley's The Last Man (1826) finds a character poring over the Greek news in the paper. Keep it apart from pour, which one Middle English spelling, pouren, closely resembled. You pore over a map, but you pour sauce over pasta.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   Any small opening or gap, especially one of many, or one that allows a fluid to pass through.

   Water moves slowly through the pores in the sandstone.

   Each pore in the cell membrane lets certain ions pass.

   Similaropening, hole, aperture

   Note

   Here the word widens from skin to any surface riddled with passages: the pores of a rock, or the communication pores Ray Smith Bassler traced through bryozoan walls in 1903. The plural also carries a figure of thoroughness, bleeding from every pore. The New York Times turned it into a joke about Kansas politics, picturing the state "bleeding from every pore of her vocabularium."

4. 4
   verbintransitive

   To meditate or reflect on something in a steady, continuous way.

   For weeks he would pore on the meaning of the strange dream.

   She pored on her decision, weighing each consequence in silence.

   Similarbrood, meditate, dwell, ruminate, muse

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