Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A high rock or pile of rocks on the top of a hill.
  • noun A rocky peak or hill.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Hard; difficult; wearisome; tedious.
  • Strong; sturdy; great; massive.
  • Full; rich.
  • noun A hill; a rocky eminence.
  • noun See tore.
  • noun A Middle English form of tower.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun rare A tower; a turret.
  • noun Prov. Eng. High-pointed hill; a rocky pinnacle.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A craggy outcrop of rock on the summit of a hill.
  • noun South-West England A hill.
  • noun UK, dialect A tower; a turret.
  • noun Alternative form of tore ("hard, difficult; strong; rich").

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a prominent rock or pile of rocks on a hill
  • noun a high rocky hill

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English torr, probably of Celtic origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English tor, torr-, from Old English torr, tor ("a high rock, lofty hill, tower"), possibly from Proto-Celtic, compare Old Welsh *tor (“hill”); ultimately from Latin turris ("high structure"), from Ancient Greek τύρρις (turris), τύρσις (týrsis, "tower"), of non-Indo-European origin. Cognate with Cornish tor, Scottish Gaelic tòrr, Welsh tŵr, Irish torr, French tor, and Romansch tor/tur/tuor; the first four are from Proto-Celtic (from Latin turris), the last two directly from Latin turris (from Ancient Greek τύρρις (turris) and τύρσις (tursis)). It is not clear whether the Celtic forms were borrowed from Old English or vice versa. See also tower.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Rot in reverse.

    November 3, 2007

  • See also cairn

    September 27, 2008