shores

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of shore.

   The rocky shores of the peninsula draw geologists from around the world.

   Storm waves battered the shores throughout the night.

   Note

   This one spelling covers two unrelated plurals. Most often it means coastlines, as in the shores of a lake or a peninsula's rocky shores, and it also appears in phrases like foreign shores and distant shores, which stand for faraway lands. But shores are also props or struts set under a sagging wall or beam, the noun behind the verb of propping up. Context, not form, tells them apart.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of shore.

   The mason shores up the crumbling archway before repairs begin.

   Fresh funding shores up the struggling theater for another season.

   Note

   Here the construction carries the meaning. Without a following up, the verb is literal: a builder shores a wall, giving it physical support. With up, it usually means reinforcing something at risk of failing, such as a budget, a coalition or a sagging roof. The props themselves share the spelling of the plural noun. Older senses of landing a boat ashore are obsolete, and a Scots use meaning "threatens" is archaic.

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