wear on

present singular third person wears on · participle present wearing on · past wore on · participle past worn on

1. transitiveTo irritate.

   But his didacticism is beginning to wear on me, and I wonder if I am on a fool's errand.

   2007, Stephen L. Carter, The Emperor of Ocean Park, page 398

2. intransitive(chiefly of time) To persist or continue with increasing exhaustion.

   As the hearing wore on, the foot-high stack of folders teetered on the edge of the table and finally dropped off.

   1986 June 21, Mike Robinson, “Bill Bradley, the tax reformer”, in Daily Globe, number 265, Worthington, Minn., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4, column 4

   2 more examples

   One possible reconciliation of the cross-section and time-series results is that actual wages paid fell relative to reported or official wage rates as the Depression wore on.

   2000, Ben Bernanke, “The Macroeconomics of the Great Depression”, in Essays on the great depression, page 32

   But as the second half wore on, Sunderland piled forward at every opportunity and their relentless pressure looked certain to be rewarded in the closing stages.

   2010 December 28, Owen Phillips, “Sunderland 0 - 2 Blackpool”, in BBC