shore up
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From shore (“to provide with support”) + up. Shore is derived from Late Middle English shoren (“to prop, to support”) [and other forms],[1][2] from shore (“a prop, a support”) [and other forms],[3] + -en (suffix forming the infinitive form of verbs);[4] while shore (noun) is from Middle Dutch schore, schare (“a prop, a stay”) (modern Dutch schoor), and Middle Low German schōre, schāre (“a prop, a stay; barrier; stockade”) (compare Old Norse skorða (“a prop, a stay”) (Norwegian skor, skorda)); further etymology unknown.[5]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈʃɔːɹ‿ʌp/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈʃɔɹ‿ʌp/
Audio (AU) (file)
Verb[edit]
shore up (third-person singular simple present shores up, present participle shoring up, simple past and past participle shored up)
- (transitive, often figuratively) To reinforce or strengthen (something at risk of failure).
- Synonyms: (rare) embolster, prop up, underfoot, undergird, underpin, underprop, underset
- They hastened outside between storms to shore up the damaged fence.
- He needed something bold and dramatic to shore up his failing candidacy.
- I shored up a geranium with earth after it had flopped over.
- 1892, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXII, in The American Claimant, New York, N.Y.: Charles L[uther] Webster & Co., OCLC 271444, pages 233–234:
- This answer fell just at the right time and just in the right place, to save the poor unstable young man from changing his political complexion once more. He had been on the point of beginning to totter again, but this prop shored him up and kept him from floundering back into democracy and re-renouncing aristocracy.
- 2011 October 20, Jamie Lillywhite, “Tottenham 1 – 0 Rubin Kazan”, in BBC Sport[1], archived from the original on 30 August 2021:
- [Harry] Redknapp was determined to secure victory and sent on Younes Kaboul and star playmaker Luka Modric to shore things up.
Translations[edit]
to reinforce or strengthen (something at risk of failure)
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References[edit]
- ^ “shōren, v.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- ^ Compare “shore, v.1”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2021; “shore2, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
- ^ “shōre, n.(3)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- ^ “-en, suf.(3)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- ^ “shore, n.3”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2021; “shore2, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
Further reading[edit]
Anagrams[edit]
Categories:
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- English terms derived from Middle Dutch
- English terms derived from Middle Low German
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