sore

comparative sorer · superlative sorest

1. Causing pain or discomfort; painfully sensitive.

   Her feet were sore from walking so far.

   Synonyms: aching, smarting, achesome, aching, achy, raw, hurt, hurty

2. Sensitive; tender; easily pained, grieved, or vexed; very susceptible of irritation.

   Malice and hatred are very fretting and vexatious, and apt to make our minds sore and uneasy.

   1671, John Tillotson, “Sermon IV. The Advantages of Religion to Particular Persons. Psalm XIX. 11.”, in The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson, Late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: […], London: […] B. Aylmer, […]; [a]nd W. Rogers, […], published 1696, →OCLC

   Synonyms: delicate, fragile, tetchy, touchy

3. Dire; distressing.

   The school was in sore need of textbooks, theirs having been ruined in the flood.

4. informalFeeling animosity towards someone; annoyed or angered.

   Joe was sore at Bob for beating him at checkers.

   2 more examples

   “God damn it.” He was sore as hell. He was really furious.

   1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 53

   TfN is clearly very sore about last year's axing of part of HS2.

   2024 May 1, “Network News: Do TfN and the DfT actually respect each other?”, in RAIL, number 1008, page 13

   Synonyms: irked, ratty, annoyed, angry, aggravated, agitated, bothered, exasperated

5. obsoleteCriminal; wrong; evil.

   […]and your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body.

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]

1. archaicnot comparableVery, excessively, extremely (of something bad).

   Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out.

   1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], “The Old Punt: A Curious ‘Turnpike’”, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 19–20

   2 more examples

   And they answered Ioshua, and said, Because it was certainely told thy seruants, how that the Lord thy God commanded his seruant Moses to giue you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you, therefore we were sore afraid of our liues because of you, and haue done this thing.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Joshua 9:24

   But on that day when Lancelot fled the lists, / His party, knights of utmost North and West, / Lords of waste marches, kings of desolate isles, / Came round their great Pendragon, saying to him / 'Lo, Sire, our knight thro' whom we won the day / Hath gone sore wounded, and hath left his prize / Untaken, crying that his prize is death.'

   1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Elaine”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 174–175

2. not comparableSorely.

   ‘I vow to crack him full sore,’ said the knight, taking out his writing-table and making a note.

   1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 54

   3 more examples

   But he was paying the penalty laid on His father's crime; for one time, cutting trees Alone among the hills, he spurned the prayer Of the Hamadryas Nymph, who, weeping sore, With earnest words besought him not to cut The trunk of an oak tree, which, with herself Coeval, had endured for many a year.

   1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 229

   And indeed I blamed myself and sore repented me of having taken compassion on him and continued in this condition, suffering fatigue not to be described, […]

   1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night

   [… they] were often sore pressed to follow the trail at all, and at best were so delayed that in the afternoon of the second day, they still had not overhauled the fugitive.

   1919, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jungle Tales of Tarzan

plural sores

1. An injured, infected, inflamed or diseased patch of skin.

   They put ointment and a bandage on the sore.

2. Grief; affliction; trouble; difficulty.

   I see plainly where his sore lies.

   1822, [Walter Scott], Peveril of the Peak. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC

present singular third person sores · participle present soring · participle past sored · past sored

1. transitiveTo mutilate the legs or feet of (a horse) in order to induce a particular gait.
2. intransitiveTo grow sores; to be beset with skin lesions.

plural sores

1. A young hawk or falcon in its first year.

   Of the soare faulcon so I learn to fly

   1596, Edmund Spenser, An Hymne of Heavenly Beautie

2. A young buck in its fourth year.

   1 more example

   Some say a Sore, but not a sore, till now made sore with shooting. The Dogges did yell, put ell to Sore, then Sorell iumps from thicket: Or Pricket-sore, or else Sorell, the people fall a hooting. If Sore be sore, then ell to Sore, makes fiftie sores O sorell: Of one sore I an hundred make by adding but one more L.

   c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]

plural SOREs

1. abbreviationacronymAcronym of small off-road engine.

   Rather than banning these engines overnight, the state is rolling out the change gradually. The new rules tighten emissions standards over time, leading up to a ban on the sale of new gas-powered SOREs by 2028.

   2025 May 4, Stacey Sloughfy, “How California's Upcoming State Ban Will Impact RVs And Camping Trips”, in The Travel, archived from the original on 08 May 2025