pour

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: pô, IPA^(key): /pɔː/
• (General American) enPR: pôr, IPA^(key): /pɔɹ/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) enPR: pōr, IPA^(key): /po(ː)ɹ/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /poə/
• (obsolete) enPR: pour, pouər, IPA^(key): /paʊɹ/, /paʊəɹ/^[1]
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
• Homophones: pore; poor (pour–poor merger); paw (non-rhotic, horse–hoarse merger)

From Middle English pouren (“to pour”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Old Northern French purer (“to sift (grain), pour out (water)”), from Latin pūrō (“to purify”), from pūrus (“pure”). Compare Middle Dutch afpuren (“to pour off, drain”).

To pour displaced several Middle English verbs:

• schenchen, schenken (“to pour”), from Old English sċenċan (“to pour out”) and Old Norse skenkja, from Proto-Germanic *skankijaną. Compare dialectal English shink, skink.
• yeten, from Old English ġēotan (“to pour”), from Proto-Germanic *geutaną.
• birlen (“to pour, serve drink to”), from Old English byrelian (“to pour, serve drink to”).
• hellen (“to pour, pour out”), from Old Norse hella (“to pour out, incline”).
• temen (“to pour out, empty”), from Old Norse tœma (“to pour out, empty”). Compare archaic English teem.

pour (third-person singular simple present pours, present participle pouring, simple past and past participle poured)

1. (transitive) To cause (liquid, or liquid-like substance) to flow in a stream, either out of a container or into it.

   pour water from a jug

   pour wine into a decanter

   to pour oil onto chips

   to pour out sand or dust.

2. (transitive, figurative) To send out as in a stream or a flood; to cause (an emotion) to come out; to cause to escape.

   My teacher poured scorn on my attempts at writing.

   • 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, prologue]:

     How London doth pour out her citizens.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 1:15:

     […] I haue drunke neither wine nor strong drinke, but haue powred out my soule before the Lord.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ezekiel 7:8:

     Now will I shortly powre out my furie vpon thee, and accomplish mine anger vpon thee […]

   • 1637, John Milton, A Mask presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634, lines 710-711:

     Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth / With such a full and unwithdrawing hand?

   • 2013 August 10, “Can China clean up fast enough?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

     At the same time, it is pouring money into cleaning up the country.

3. (transitive) To send forth from, as in a stream; to discharge uninterruptedly.
   • 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC:

     Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat?

4. (intransitive) To flow, pass, or issue in a stream; to fall continuously and abundantly.

   the rain poured down.

   • 2014 October 27, Taylor Swift, Imogen Heap, “Clean (Taylor's Version)”, in 1989 (Taylor's Version)‎^[1], performed by Taylor Swift, published 2023 October 27:

     The rain came pouring down
     When I was drownin', that's when I could finally breathe

5. (impersonal) To rain hard.

   Synonym: (originally Northern England, Scotland, archaic) spate

   It's pouring outside.

6. (intransitive) Of a beverage, to be on tap or otherwise available for serving to customers.
7. (intransitive) To move in a throng, as a crowd.

   The people poured out of the theater.

   • 1716, John Gay, Trivia: Or, The Art of Walking the Streets of London:

     In the rude throng pour on with furious pace.

   • 1964 June 16, “All Eyes On Lema At U.S. Open This Week”, in The Indianapolis Star, volume 62, number 11, Indianapolis, Ind., page 22:

     The bluebloods of golf began pouring into the sweltering nation’s capital yesterday for the 64th U.S. Open championship, and the hottest topic was not Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus, but Champagne Tony Lema.

   • 2011 January 8, Chris Bevan, “Arsenal 1-1 Leeds”, in BBC:

     In a breathless finish Arsenal poured forward looking for a winner but Leeds held out for a deserved replay after Bendtner wastefully fired wide and Schmeichel acrobatically kept out Denilson's rasping effort

• (pour a drink): shink, skink

pour (plural pours)

1. The act of pouring.

   The bartender's inexpert pour left me with a pint of beer that was half foam.

2. Something, or an amount, poured.
   • 2003, John Brian Newman, B. S. Choo, Advanced concrete technology: Volume 2:

     Over this time period, the first concrete pour has not only lost workability but has started to set so that it is no longer affected by the action of a vibrator.

   • 2023 June 14, “Network News: Concrete for Old Oak Common - and consent for Curzon Street viaduct”, in RAIL, number 985, page 22:

     HS2 Ltd has completed the first base-slab concrete pour at the western end of Old Oak Common station.

3. (colloquial) A downpour; a flood of precipitation.
   • 1831, Susan Ferrier, Destiny; or, the Chief's Daughter‎^[2], page 84:

     Then, as if to give the lie to the offensive insinuation, he mounted his horse, and rode home ten miles in a pour of rain, without a great coat or umbrella.

   • 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:

     But then one of Mr. Knott's men would have had to put on his coat and hat and turn out, as likely as not in the pitch dark, and in torrents of rain in all probability, and grope his way in the dark in the pours of rain, with the pot of food in his hand, a wretched and ridiculous figure, to where the dog lay.

pour

1. Misspelling of pore.

• pour encourager les autres

• puro, roup

• pur, pür
• Puur

From Middle High German būre, gibūre, from Old High German gibūro, from būr (“peasant”). Cognate with German Bauer, Dutch buur, English bower.

pour m

1. (Issime) farmer

• Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Luserna / Lusérn: Le nostre parole / Ünsarne börtar / Unsere Wörter [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

• (Rémois) piou, paou
• (Langrois) peue

Inherited from Latin pavor.

IPA^(key): /pu(r)/

pour m (plural pours)

1. (Troyen) fear

• Daunay, Jean (1998) Parlers de Champagne : Pour un classement thématique du vocabulaire des anciens parlers de Champagne (Aube - Marne - Haute-Marne)‎^[3] (in French), Rumilly-lés-Vaudes
• Baudoin, Alphonse (1885) Glossaire de la forêt de Clairvaux‎^[4] (in French), Troyes

Inherited from Middle French pour, from Old French por, pur, from Late Latin pōr, from Latin prō.

• IPA^(key): /puʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uʁ

pour

1. for (meant for, intended for) (followed by a noun or pronoun)

   J’ai un cadeau pour toi.

   I've got a gift for you.

2. for (in support of)

   Pourquoi voter pour lui ?

   Why did you vote for him?

3. for (as a consequence for)

   Il faut le punir pour ses crimes.

   He must be punished for his crimes.

4. for (an intended destination)

   Sébastien est parti pour Londres.

   Sébastien left for London.

5. to (to bring about an intended result) (followed by a verb in the infinitive)

   Je veux chanter pour te faire revenir.

   I want to sing to make you come back.

   • 2021, Angèle, Démons:

     Comment faire pour tuer mes démons ?

     How to kill my demons?

6. for, to (according to)

   Pour moi, ce film est trop irréaliste.

   For me, this film is too unrealistic.

• peser le pour et le contre
• pour ainsi dire
• pourboire m
• pour ce qui est de
• pour-cent m
• pour-compte m
• pour que

• “pour”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• prou

From Old French por, pur.

pour

1. for (indicates an intended aim or recipient)
   • 1488, Jean Dupré, Lancelot du Lac, page 41:

     Dieu le scet que ie ne le faisoye se non pour bien & pour Dieu & pour franchise avoir

     God knows that I did for good, for God and to have freedom

• French: pour

• pouor (Jersey)

Inherited from Old French por, from Late Latin pōr, from Latin prō.

pour (Guernsey)

1. for
2. in order to

• pur (peasant, farmer, Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Puter)
• paur (Vallader)
• pur (pawn, Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Puter, Vallader)

Of Germanic origin, cognate with German Bauer, Dutch boer.

pour m (plural pours)

1. (Surmiran) peasant, farmer
2. (Surmiran, chess) pawn