bear on

present singular third person bears on · participle present bearing on · past bore on · participle past borne on

1. To influence, have an effect on.

   Synonyms: bear upon

2. To be relevant to.

   That ruling bears on our application.

   1 more example

   In order to enable the reader to supply deficiencies and to form his own opinions, if haply he should be of so unusual a turn of mind as to desire so to do, we have, at the end of almost every article, indicated the names of trustworthy works bearing on the subject treated in that article.

   1905, Basil Hall Chamberlain, Things Japanese, Introductory Chapter

3. To harm, hinder or be a burden upon.

   1 more example

   In the days when men changed their skins and lived for ever, the permanence of property in the same hands was found to be a great inconvenience; it bore very hard on the heirs, who were perpetually tantalized by the prospect of an inheritance to which it was legally and physically impossible that they should ever succeed.

   1918, James George Frazer, Folk-Lore In The Old Testament, volume 1, page 71