bear out

English

Etymology

From Middle English beren out, dissimilated from earlier Middle English outberen, equivalent to bear +‎ out.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɛəɹ ˈaʊt/

Verb

bear out (third-person singular simple present bears out, present participle bearing out, simple past bore out, past participle borne out)

1. (transitive) To corroborate, prove, or confirm; to demonstrate; to provide evidence for.

   It was a promising idea, but the evidence did not bear out their theory.

   • 1985, John Haugeland, Artificial Intelligence: The Very Idea, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 255:

     Time has borne McCarthy out; but see Schank (1983) for a plea that learning should now be reactivated as a central research topic.

   • 2019 December 17, Howard Davies, “Will the UK really turn into 'Singapore-on-Thames' after Brexit?”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     But the idea that Singapore is a deregulated paradise is not borne out by reality, as anyone who has tried to dispose of a piece of used chewing gum there will know.

2. To maintain and support to the end; to defend to the last.
   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:

     It is company only that can bear a man out in an ill thing

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter XXVI, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 128:

     If, then, to meanest mariners, and renegades and castaways, I shall hereafter ascribe high qualities, though dark ; weave round them tragic graces ; if even the most mournful, perchance the most abased, among them all, shall at times lift himself to the exalted mounts ; if I shall touch that workman's arm with some ethereal light ; if I shall spread a rainbow over his disastrous set of sun ; then against all mortal critics bear me out in it, thou just spirit of Equality, which hast spread one royal mantle of humanity over all my kind ! Bear me out in it, thou great democratic God !

3. (intransitive, of a horse) To move quickly and sharply in an outward direction during a race; to veer out.

   That horse always bears out on the turns.

Translations

corroborate, prove, or confirm

• Catalan: confirmar (ca), corroborar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: bevestigen (nl)
• Finnish: tukea (fi), vahvistaa (fi)
• French: confirmer (fr), corroborer (fr)
• Galician: confirmar (gl)
• German: bestätigen (de)
• Italian: confermare (it), dare ragione
• Portuguese: confirmar (pt), corroborar (pt)
• Spanish: confirmar (es), corroborar (es)

maintain and support to the end

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: kannatella (fi)

Anagrams

• U-boater, outbear