sore

Adjective

sore (comparative sorer, superlative sorest)

1. Causing pain or discomfort; painfully sensitive.

   Synonyms: aching, smarting; see also Thesaurus:painful

   Her feet were sore from walking so far.

2. Sensitive; tender; easily pained, grieved, or vexed; very susceptible of irritation.

   Synonyms: delicate, fragile, tetchy, touchy

   • 1671, John Tillotson, “Sermon IV. The Advantages of Religion to Particular Persons. Psalm XIX. 11.”, in The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson, Late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: […], 8th edition, London: […] T. Goodwin, B[enjamin] Tooke, and J. Pemberton, […]; J. Round […], and J[acob] Tonson] […], published 1720, →OCLC:

     Malice and hatred are very fretting and vexatious, and apt to make our minds sore and uneasy.

3. Dire; distressing.

   The school was in sore need of textbooks, theirs having been ruined in the flood.

4. (informal) Feeling animosity towards someone; annoyed or angered.

   Synonyms: irked, ratty; see also Thesaurus:annoyed, Thesaurus:angry

   Joe was sore at Bob for beating him at checkers.

   • 1951, J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 53:

     “God damn it.” He was sore as hell. He was really furious.

   • 2024 May 1, “Network News: Do TfN and the DfT actually respect each other?”, in RAIL, number 1008, page 13:

     TfN is clearly very sore about last year's axing of part of HS2.

5. (obsolete) Criminal; wrong; evil.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

     […] and your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body.

Adverb

sore (not comparable)

1. (archaic) Very, excessively, extremely (of something bad).
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Joshua 9:24:

     And they answered Ioshua, and said, Because it was certainely told thy seruants, how that the Lord thy God commanded his seruant Moses to giue you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you, therefore we were sore afraid of our liues because of you, and haue done this thing.

   • 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Elaine”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 174–175:

     But on that day when Lancelot fled the lists, / His party, knights of utmost North and West, / Lords of waste marches, kings of desolate isles, / Came round their great Pendragon, saying to him / 'Lo, Sire, our knight thro' whom we won the day / Hath gone sore wounded, and hath left his prize / Untaken, crying that his prize is death.'

   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], “The Old Punt: A Curious ‘Turnpike’”, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 19–20:

     Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out.

2. Sorely.
   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night:

     And indeed I blamed myself and sore repented me of having taken compassion on him and continued in this condition, suffering fatigue not to be described, […]

   • 1919, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jungle Tales of Tarzan‎:

     [… they] were often sore pressed to follow the trail at all, and at best were so delayed that in the afternoon of the second day, they still had not overhauled the fugitive.

Noun

sore (plural sores)

1. An injured, infected, inflamed or diseased patch of skin.

   They put ointment and a bandage on the sore.

2. Grief; affliction; trouble; difficulty.
   • 1822, [Walter Scott], Peveril of the Peak. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:

     I see plainly where his sore lies.

Verb

sore (third-person singular simple present sores, present participle soring, simple past and past participle sored)

1. (transitive) To mutilate the legs or feet of (a horse) in order to induce a particular gait.

See also

• blister
• lesion
• ulcer

Noun

sore (plural sores)

2. A young hawk or falcon in its first year.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, An Hymne of Heavenly Beautie:

     Of the soare faulcon so I learn to fly

3. A young buck in its fourth year.
   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:

     Some say a Sore, but not a sore, till now made sore with shooting.
     The Dogges did yell, put ell to Sore, then Sorell iumps from thicket:
     Or Pricket-sore, or else Sorell, the people fall a hooting.
     If Sore be sore, then ell to Sore, makes fiftie sores O sorell:
     Of one sore I an hundred make by adding but one more L.

Derived terms

• disore
• parsore