pour

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: pô, IPA^(key): /pɔː/
• (General American) enPR: pôr, IPA^(key): /pɔɹ/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) enPR: pōr, IPA^(key): /po(ː)ɹ/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /poə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
• Homophone: pore; poor (in accents with the pour–poor merger); paw (non-rhotic accents with the horse–hoarse merger)

From Middle English pouren (“to pour”). Origin uncertain. Likely to be of Celtic origin, from Celtic base *purr- (“to jerk, throw (water)”). Akin to Welsh bwrw (“to cast; to strike; to rain”), Scottish Gaelic purr (“to push, thrust, urge, drive”), Irish purraim (“I push, I jerk”). Compare Flemish pouren (“to pour”) (rare).

Displaced native Middle English schenchen, schenken (“to pour”) (from Old English sċenċan (“to pour out”)), ȝeoten, yetten (“to pour”) (from Old English ġēotan (“to pour”)), temen (“to pour out, empty”) (from Old Norse tœma (“to pour out, empty”)), birlen (“to pour, serve drink to”) (from Old English byrelian (“to pour, serve drink to”)), hellen (“to pour, pour out”) (from Old Norse hella (“to pour out, incline”)).

pour (third-person singular simple present pours, present participle pouring, simple past and past participle poured)

1. (transitive) To cause to flow in a stream, as a liquid or anything flowing like a liquid, either out of a vessel or into it.

   to pour water from a pail

   to pour wine into a decanter

   to pour oil upon the waters

   to pour out sand or dust.

2. (transitive) To send forth as in a stream or a flood; to emit; to let escape freely or wholly.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act 5, prologue]:

     How London doth pour out her citizens.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, 1 Samuel 1:15:

     […] I haue drunke neither wine nor strong drinke, but haue powred out my soule before the Lord.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Ezekiel 7:8:

     Now will I shortly powre out my furie vpon thee, and accomplish mine anger vpon thee […]

   • 1637, John Milton, A Mask presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634, lines 710-711:

     Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth / With such a full and unwithdrawing hand?

   • 2013 August 10, “Can China clean up fast enough?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

     At the same time, it is pouring money into cleaning up the country.

3. (transitive) To send forth from, as in a stream; to discharge uninterruptedly.
   • A. Pope

     Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat?

4. (intransitive) To flow, pass or issue in a stream; to fall continuously and abundantly.

   the rain poured down.

5. (impersonal) To rain hard.

   It's pouring outside.

6. (intransitive) Of a beverage, to be on tap or otherwise available for serving to customers.
7. (intransitive) To move in a throng, as a crowd.
   • Gay

     In the rude throng pour on with furious pace.

   • 2011 January 8, Chris Bevan, “Arsenal 1-1 Leeds”, in BBC:

     In a breathless finish Arsenal poured forward looking for a winner but Leeds held out for a deserved replay after Bendtner wastefully fired wide and Schmeichel acrobatically kept out Denilson's rasping effort

   The people poured out of the theater.

• (pour a drink): shink, skink

pour (plural pours)

1. The act of pouring.

   The bartender's inexpert pour left me with a pint of beer that was half foam.

2. Something, or an amount, poured.
   • 2003, John Brian Newman, B. S. Choo, Advanced concrete technology: Volume 2

     Over this time period, the first concrete pour has not only lost workability but has started to set so that it is no longer affected by the action of a vibrator.

3. (colloquial) A stream, or something like a stream; especially a flood of precipitation.
   • 1831, Susan Ferrier, Destiny; or, the Chief's Daughter‎, page 84:

     Then, as if to give the lie to the offensive insinuation, he mounted his horse, and rode home ten miles in a pour of rain, without a great coat or umbrella.

pour

1. Misspelling of pore.

• puro, roup

• pur, pür
• Puur

From Middle High German būre, gibūre, from Old High German gibūro, from būr (“peasant”). Cognate with German Bauer, Dutch buur, English bower.

pour m

1. (Issime) farmer

• “pour” in Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Ünsarne Börtar [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

From Middle French pour, from Old French por, pur, from Vulgar Latin *por, from Latin prō.

• IPA^(key): /puʁ/

• audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uʁ

pour

1. for (when followed by a noun or pronoun)

   J'ai un cadeau pour toi.

   I've got a gift for you.

2. to (when followed by a verb at the infinitive)

   Je veux chanter pour te faire revenir.

   I want to sing to make you come back.

• pourboire m
• pour-cent m
• pour-compte m

• “pour” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• prou

From Old French por, pur.

pour

1. for (indicates an intended aim or recipient)
   • 1488, Jean Dupré, Lancelot du Lac, page 41:

     Dieu le scet que ie ne le faisoye se non pour bien & pour Dieu & pour franchise avoir

     God knows that I did for good, for God and to have freedom

• French: pour

• pouor (Jersey)

From Old French por, from Vulgar Latin *por, from Latin prō.

pour

1. (Guernsey) for
2. (Guernsey) in order to

• (peasant, farmer): pur (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Puter), paur (Vallader)
• (pawn): pur (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Puter, Vallader)

Of Germanic origin, cognate with German Bauer, Dutch boer.

pour m (plural pours)

1. (Surmiran) peasant, farmer
2. (Surmiran, chess) pawn