soar

Formssoars, soaring, soared

Pluralsoars

1. 1
   verbintransitive

   To fly high in the air with little effort, the way a bird does.

   Condors can soar for miles without flapping their wings.

   The gulls soared effortlessly over the chalk cliffs.

   Similarglide, sail, fly, wheel

   Note

   Behind the bird's effortless climb sits the air itself. Old French essorer, "to fly up," goes back to Latin ex "out" and aura "air, breeze," the same aura English later borrowed whole, so to soar is at root to go out into the air. The verb takes no object, and poets often let it lead the clause, as Byron does: "When soars Gaul's Vulture, with his wings unfurl'd."

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To rise, especially very rapidly or to an unusually high level.

   House prices soar in cities where demand far outstrips supply.

   The company's profits soared after the new product launched.

   Similarskyrocket, rocket, surge, climb, rise

   Oppositeplummet, plunge, slump, fall

   Note

   Here the climb belongs to figures rather than birds: prices, costs, profits. The word suits a number that rises fast or far, and it pairs naturally with into, as in pump prices soared into new heights. In the progressive it describes a climb still underway, as when David Clough writes in RAIL (2021) that maintenance costs "were soaring." For a steady, modest increase, rise or climb is the better word.

3. 3
   verbintransitive

   To mount upward on wings, or as if on wings, especially by gliding on rising currents of air.

   Eagles soar for hours, using thermals to gain height without flapping.

   The condor soared along the ridge where warm air rose from the slopes.

   Similarglide, rise, climb, ascend

   Oppositedescend, plummet

4. 4
   verbfigurativelyintransitive

   To rise in thought, spirits, or imagination; to feel exalted or uplifted in mood.

   Spirits soar when long-held dreams finally seem within reach.

   His mind soared with visions of what the future might hold.

   Similarrise, lift

   Oppositesink, flag

   Note

   The mind's flight usually heads above something. Milton's transported mind may "soar / Above the wheeling poles," and in Addison's Cato (1713) "Valour soars above What the world calls misfortune." That construction, soar above, means to rise beyond whatever would hold one down. Used alone, the verb becomes a call to rise in spirit, as when Korris in Star Trek urges, "Get off your knees and soar."

5. 5
   nouncountable

   An instance of flying upward, especially high into the air.

   The condor's soar carried it effortlessly over the peaks.

   A sudden soar lifted the kestrel above the cliff edge.

   Similarclimb, ascent, rise

   Oppositedescent, dive

6. 6
   noun

   The action of rising and gliding high through the air with little effort.

   The hawk's soar above the field seemed almost endless.

   She admired the smooth soar of the sailplane overhead.

   Similarglide, flight

   Note

   The noun has the same form as the verb, with no suffix added, and its plural is soars. Coleridge, in his Notes on Jeremy Taylor, writes of "this apparent soar of the hooded falcon," where many writers would use soaring. It names the motion itself. For a single climb, an upward flight is the closer fit.

7. 7
   verbintransitive

   To remain aloft in a glider or other unpowered aircraft, using air currents to stay up.

   Experienced pilots soar across long distances without an engine.

   He soared for six hours, riding thermals between the mountain ranges.

   Similarglide

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