comparable |
1. adj. (often with to) Able to be compared (to). | |
An elephant is comparable in size to a double-decker bus. | |
You can't say that robbing a bank is like pickpocketing. The two are just not comparable. | |
2. adj. (often with to) Similar (to); like. | |
3. adj. (mathematics) Constituting a pair in a particular partial order. | |
Six and forty-two are comparable in the divides order, but six and nine are not. | |
4. adj. (grammar) Said of an adjective that has a comparative and superlative form. | |
"Big" is a comparable adjective, since it can take the forms "bigger" and "biggest"; but "unique" is not comparable, except in disputed, but common, usage. | |
5. n. Something suitable for comparison. | |
bearing |
1. v. present participle of bear | |
2. adj. (in combination) That bears (some specified thing). | |
a gift-bearing visitor | |
3. adj. Of a beam, column, or other device, carrying weight or load. | |
That's a bearing wall. | |
4. n. A mechanical device that supports another part and/or reduces friction. | |
5. n. (navigation, nautical) The horizontal angle between the direction of an object and another object, or between it and that of true north; a heading or direction. | |
6. n. Relevance; a relationship or connection. | |
That has no bearing on this issue. | |
7. n. One's posture, demeanor, or manner. | |
She walks with a confident, self-assured bearing. | |
8. n. (in the plural) Direction or relative position. | |
9. n. (architecture) That part of any member of a building which rests upon its supports. | |
A lintel or beam may have four inches of bearing upon the wall. | |
10. n. (architecture) The portion of a support on which anything rests. | |
11. n. (architecture, proscribed) The unsupported span. | |
The beam has twenty feet of bearing between its supports. | |
12. n. (heraldry) Any single emblem or charge in an escutcheon or coat of arms. | |
bear |
1. n. A large omnivorous mammal, related to the dog and raccoon, having shaggy hair, a very small tail, and flat feet; a member of family Ursidae. | |
2. n. (figuratively) A rough, unmannerly, uncouth person. | |
3. n. (finance) An investor who sells commodities, securities or futures in anticipation of a fall in prices. | |
4. n. (slang) A state policeman (short for smokey bear). | |
5. n. (slang) A large, hairy man, especially one who is homosexual. | |
6. n. (engineering) A portable punching machine. | |
7. n. (nautical) A block covered with coarse matting, used to scour the deck. | |
8. n. (cartomancy) The fifteenth Lenormand card. | |
9. v. (finance, transitive) To endeavour to depress the price of, or prices in. | |
to bear a railroad stock | |
to bear the market | |
10. adj. (finance, investments) Characterized by declining prices in securities markets or by belief that the prices will fall. | |
The great bear market starting in 1929 scared a whole generation of investors. | |
11. v. To support or sustain; to hold up. | |
This stone bears most of the weight. | |
12. v. To carry something. | |
13. v. To be equipped with (something). | |
the right to bear arms | |
14. v. To wear or display. | |
The shield bore a red cross. | |
15. v. (transitive, with witness) To declare as testimony. | |
The jury could see he was bearing false witness. | |
16. v. To put up with something. | |
I would never move to Texas—I can't bear heat. | |
Please bear with me as I try to find the book you need. | |
17. v. To give birth to someone or something (may take the father of the direct object as an indirect object). | |
In Troy she becomes Paris’ wife, bearing him several children, all of whom die in infancy. | |
18. v. To produce or yield something, such as fruit or crops. | |
19. v. (intransitive) To be, or head, in a specific direction or azimuth (from somewhere). | |
The harbour bears north by northeast. | |
By my readings, we're bearing due south, so we should turn about ten degrees east. | |
Great Falls bears north of Bozeman. | |
We are bearing toward the north side of the island. | |
20. v. (intransitive) To veer slightly in one direction (left or right, usually at a fork in the road) | |
21. v. (intransitive) To suffer, as in carrying a burden. | |
22. v. (intransitive) To endure with patience; to be patient. | |
23. v. (intransitive, usually with on, upon, or against) To press. | |
24. v. (intransitive military, usually with on or upon) Of a weapon, to be aimed at an enemy or other target. | |
25. v. (intransitive, figuratively) To take effect; to have influence or force; to be relevant. | |
to bring arguments to bear | |
How does this bear on the question? | |
26. v. To have a certain meaning, intent, or effect. | |
27. v. (transitive, obsolete) To conduct; to bring (a person). | |
28. v. To possess and use (power, etc.); to exercise. | |
29. v. To possess mentally; to carry or hold in the mind; to entertain; to harbour. | |
30. v. (transitive, obsolete) To gain or win. | |
31. v. To sustain, or be answerable for (blame, expense, responsibility, etc.). | |
32. v. To carry on, or maintain; to have. | |
33. v. To admit or be capable of (a meaning); to suffer or sustain without violence, injury, or change. | |
34. v. (reflexive, transitive) To behave or conduct (oneself). | |
35. v. To afford; to be (something) to; to supply with. | |
36. n. (colloquial) Something difficult or tiresome; a burden or chore. | |
That window can be a bear to open. | |
37. n. alternative spelling of bere barley. | |
comparison |
1. n. The act of comparing or the state or process of being compared. | |
to bring a thing into comparison with another; there is no comparison between them | |
2. n. An evaluation of the similarities and differences of one or more things relative to some other or each-other. | |
He made a careful comparison of the available products before buying anything. | |
3. n. With a negation, the state of being similar or alike. | |
There really is no comparison between the performance of today's computers and those of a decade ago. | |
4. n. (grammar) The ability of adjectives and adverbs to form three degrees, as in hot, hotter, hottest. | |
5. n. That to which, or with which, a thing is compared, as being equal or like; illustration; similitude. | |
6. n. (rhetoric) A simile. | |
7. n. (phrenology) The faculty of the reflective group which is supposed to perceive resemblances and contrasts. | |