pore

plural pores

1. A tiny opening in the skin.

   I could sense the sweat dripping out of all my pores.

   Synonyms: sweat hole

2. By extension any small opening or interstice, especially one of many, or one allowing the passage of a fluid.

   the pores of a rock.

   2 more examples

   Under certain conditions tangential sections indicate that the zoœcial walls and the intermural space are seemingly pierced by communication pores or connecting foramina.

   1903, Ray Smith Bassler, The Structural Features of the Bryozoan Genus Homotrypa, with Descriptions of Species from the Cincinnatian Group, page 570

   After reading White’s vitriolic language, The New York Times facetiously remarked that “Kansas is bleeding from every pore of her vocabularium. Sharp’s rifles are discharging from the well-known Emporium of White & Son, unlimited, and Bibles are closed until after election.”

   1947, Walter Johnson, “The Rebirth of the Progressive Movement”, in William Allen White’s America, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, part IV (Normalcy and Reform), page 436

present singular third person pores · participle present poring · participle past pored · past pored

1. To study meticulously; to go over again and again.

   Yet each foreign post day she watched for the arrival of letters - knew the postmark, and watched me as I read. I found her often poring over the articles of Greek intelligence in the newspaper.

   1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter X, in The Last Man. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC

2. To meditate or reflect in a steady way.