were

alternative ware · alternative obsolete weare

1. indicativepastsecond personsingularsecond-person singular simple past indicative of be

   John, you were the only person to see him.

2. indicativepastpluralplural simple past indicative of be

   We were about to leave.

   3 more examples

   Mary and John, you were right.

   They were a fine group.

   They were to be the best of friends from that day on.

3. simple subjunctive of be

   I wish that it were Sunday.

   5 more examples

   I wish that I were with you.

   If you were to move your chair a little, we'd all fit.

   I'd say you were about 50 years old right now.

   A long shot, it may be, at immortality, but longer ones have hit; or Guido Fawkes, William Tell, and Samuel Pepys were forgotten now.

   1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries

   Maccabi would have been out of contention were it not for Stoke's profligacy, but their fortune eventually ran out as the visitors opened the scoring.

   2011 November 3, David Ornstein, “Macc Tel-Aviv 1 - 2 Stoke”, in BBC Sport

4. IrelandMulticultural London EnglishNorthern Englandfirst personindicativepastsingularthird personfirst/third-person singular simple past indicative of be.

plural weres

1. alternativeAlternative form of wer (“man; wergeld”).

   1799-1805, Sharon Turner, History of the Anglo-Saxons Every man was valued at a certain sum, which was called his were.

   3 more examples

   If by that he failed to pay or give security for the were, or fine, at which murder was legally rated; he might be put to death by the relatives of the murdered man.

   1867, John Lingard, T. Young, Introduction to English History … arranged … by T. Young, page 19

   Written statutes busied themselves only with the amount of the were, or fine, or (for the first century after the Conquest) with the method of procedure.

   1908, Frederic Jesup Stimson, The Law of the Federal and State Constitutions of the United States, page 13

   The consequence of conviction was, the payment to the person injured, of a were, or penalty, proportioned to the offencel but though this was the ordinary course, the recovery of the were was not the only object of the proceedings. "The were," says Reeve, "in cases of homicide, and the fines that were paid in cases of theft of various kinds, were only to redeem the offender from the proper punishment of the law, which was death, and that was reddemable, not only by paying money, but by undergoing some personal pains; hence it is that we hear a great variety of corporal punishments..."...

   2004, James Fitzjames Stephen, A General View of the Criminal Law of England, →ISBN, pages 12–13

plural weres

1. slanglifestyleThe collective name for any kind of person that changes into another form under certain conditions, including the werewolf.