wear
Definitions
General English
- verb to have something such as clothes or jewellery on your body
- verb to damage something or make it thin through using it
Aviation
- noun damage or loss of quality by use
- verb to become damaged or to lose quality because of use
Cars & Driving
- noun the progressive loss of substance from the operating surface of a body occurring as a result of relative motion at the surface; rubbing away
Medical
- verb to become damaged through being used
Origin & History of “wear”
Wear goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *wazjan, of whose other descendants only the Icelandic past participle varinn ‘clad’ survives. this was formed from the base *was-, which in turn was descended from Indo-European *wes-, source of Latin vestis ‘clothing’, from which English gets vest, vestment, etc.
