bear² /bār/

1. A heavy carnivorous animal with long shaggy hair and hooked claws
2. Also applied to other unrelated animals, such as the koala
3. A teddy bear
4. A person who sells stocks for delivery at a future date, anticipating a fall in price, opp to bull (the old phrase a bearskin jobber suggests an origin in the proverbial phrase, to sell the bearskin before one has caught the bear; stock exchange)
5. The name of two constellations, the Great Bear and the Little Bear (Ursa Major and Minor)
6. Any rude, rough or ill-mannered fellow

To act as a bear

To lower the price of (a stock) or depress (a market) by selling speculatively

bearˈish adjective

1. Like a bear in manners
2. Inclining towards, anticipating, a fall in price (stock exchange)

bearˈishly adverb

bearˈishness noun

bear-animalˈcule noun

A tardigrade, a kind of minute arthropod with four pairs of stumpy legs

bearˈ-baiting noun

The former sport of setting dogs to attack a bear

bearˈberry noun

1. A trailing plant (genus Arctostaphylos) of the family Ericaceae
2. Extended to various plants

bearˈbine noun

A bindweed

bearˈcat noun

The lesser or red panda

bear garden noun

1. An enclosure for bear-baiting or for exhibiting bears
2. A turbulent assembly

bear hug noun

1. A hold in which one wraps one's arms tightly around one's opponent's arms and upper body (wrestling)
2. A similar tight hug

• reflective
• reflective binary code
• reflectively
• reflectiveness
• reflectivenesses
• reflectivities
• reflectivity
• reflectogram
• reflectograms
• reflectograph
• reflectographs
• reflectography
• reflectometer
• reflectometers
• out of one's own head
• out of one's senses
• out of one's skull
• out of one's tree
• out of order
• out of perspective
• out of phase
• out of place
• out of play
• out of pocket
• out-of-pocket