Definitions

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

  • noun A tool used for drilling.
  • noun An insect or insect larva, such as a corn borer, that bores chiefly into the stems and trunks of plants.
  • noun Any of various mollusks that bore into soft rock or wood.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A marine snail, as Urosalpinx cinerca: so named because of its habit of boring through the shells of oysters and other mollusks.
  • noun The larva of the American buprestid beetle, Chrysobothris femorata (which see, with cut); the flat-headed apple-tree borer.
  • noun The larva of a crambid moth, Diatræa saccharalis, which bores in sugar-cane in the West Indies and the southern United States, where it is also known as the larger corn-stalk borer.
  • noun A scolytid beetle, Xyleborus perforans.
  • noun The larva of the sugarcane weevil, a calandrid beetle, Sphenophorus obscurus, common in the islands of the Pacific.
  • noun One who bores or pierces.
  • noun A tool or instrument used for boring; an auger; specifically, in Great Britain, a drill, an implement used in boring holes in rock.
  • noun A name common to many minute coleopterous insects of the group Xylophaga, whose larvæ eat their way into old wood, forming at the bottom of the holes a little cocoon, whence they emerge as small beetles.
  • noun Some other insect which bores, either in the larval or adult state.
  • noun A local English name of the glutinous hag, Myxine glutinosa. See cut under hag.
  • noun A bivalve mollusk which bores into wood or stone, especially one of the family Pholadidœ.
  • noun In entomology, the terebra or ovipositor when it is used for boring, as in many beetles, flies, etc.

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

  • noun One that bores; an instrument for boring.
  • noun A marine, bivalve mollusk, of the genus Teredo and allies, which burrows in wood. See Teredo.
  • noun Any bivalve mollusk (Saxicava, Lithodomus, etc.) which bores into limestone and similar substances.
  • noun One of the larvæ of many species of insects, which penetrate trees, as the apple, peach, pine, etc. See Apple borer, under Apple.
  • noun The hagfish (Myxine).

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

  • noun A person who bores, who drills.
  • noun A tool used for drilling.
  • noun An insect or insect larva that bores into wood.
  • noun One of the many types of mollusc that bore into soft rock.
  • noun The hagfish (Myxine).

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

  • noun a drill for penetrating rock
  • noun any of various insects or larvae or mollusks that bore into wood

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The Watchdog says the word "ash borer" reminds him of his flea problem.

    KansasCity.com: Front Page 2011

  • The borer is the despair of the land-owner; he works underground; no

    Sons of the Soil Honor�� de Balzac 1824

  • It's likely that the Emerald ash borer, which is a beetle from Asia, could create an infestation.

    kare11.com - Top Stories News 2009

  • Unfortunately, the Emerald ash borer, which is attacking ash trees across the country, has been reported as near as the southwest corner of Wisconsin, right across the border from Dubuque, Iowa.

    JournalStar.com - News Articles 2009

  • Another example was reported from a manufacturer in the South, where the pieces of lumber which had strips of bark on one side were seriously damaged by the same kind of borer, the eggs having been deposited in the logs before sawing or in the bark after the lumber was piled.

    Seasoning of Wood

  • And I don't know why "borer" isn't a better name for it.

    The Doers William John Hopkins 1894

  • They had great thick chisels and heavy wooden mallets in their hands, and there was a big bit, or "borer," as the little boy called it, lying on the ground between them.

    The Doers William John Hopkins 1894

  • The Plan A drill, mainly used for creating ventilation shafts in underground mines, is known as a raise borer, meaning it drills a pilot hole first before using a reamer to widen the opening from the far end.

    Thestar.com - Home Page Jennifer Yang 2010

  • The Plan A drill, mainly used for creating ventilation shafts in underground mines, is known as a raise borer, meaning it drills a pilot hole first before using a reamer to widen the opening from the far end.

    Thestar.com - Home Page Jennifer Yang 2010

  • The Plan A drill, mainly used for creating ventilation shafts in underground mines, is known as a raise borer, meaning it drills a pilot hole first before using a reamer to widen the opening from the far end.

    Thestar.com - Home Page Jennifer Yang 2010

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