shore²

[shawr, shohr] /ʃɔr, ʃoʊr/

noun

a supporting post or beam with auxiliary members, especially one placed obliquely against the side of a building, a ship in drydock, or the like; prop; strut.

verb (used with object), shored, shoring.

to support by or as if by a shore or shores; prop (usually followed by up):

to shore up a roof; government subsidies to shore up falling corn prices.

Origin

1300-50; (noun) Middle English; cognate with Middle Low German, Middle Dutch schore prop; (v.) shoren, derivative of the noun

Synonyms

1. brace, buttress, stay.

Examples from the web for shore up

The difference is that there are fewer restraints on the lengths to which they can go in order to shore up their power base.
To counter boredom and shore up recession-crimped finances, a retirement career can be a win-win.
The government at last recognises the need to do more to shore up its financial system.
Ringing statements that the big economies would do whatever it took to shore up the system had real value.
The company was forced to take urgent steps to shore up its balance-sheet.
There was little doubt but that an agreement to sell or shore up the firm had to be reached over the weekend.
Fiscal stimulus has helped shore up aggregate demand.
The priority for policymakers is to shore up the financial system.
Government interventions to shore up the housing market add an extra element of unpredictability.
Most likely the government's main motivation is to shore up its borrowing needs.

British Dictionary definitions for shore up

shore¹

/ʃɔː/

noun

the land along the edge of a sea, lake, or wide river related adjective littoral

land, as opposed to water (esp in the phrase on shore)
(as modifier): shore duty

(law) the tract of coastland lying between the ordinary marks of high and low water

(often pl) a country: his native shores

verb

(transitive) to move or drag (a boat) onto a shore

Word Origin

C14: probably from Middle Low German, Middle Dutch schōre; compare Old High German scorra cliff; see shear

shore²

/ʃɔː/

noun

a prop, post, or beam used to support a wall, building, ship in dry dock, etc

verb

(transitive) often foll by up. to prop or make safe with or as if with a shore

Derived Forms

shoring, noun

Word Origin

C15: from Middle Dutch schōre; related to Old Norse skortha prop

shore³

/ʃɔː/

verb

(Austral & NZ) a past tense of shear

Word Origin and History for shore up

shore

"land bordering a large body of water," c.1300, from an Old English word or from Middle Low German schor "shore, coast, headland," or Middle Dutch scorre "land washed by the sea," all probably from Proto-Germanic *skur-o- "cut," from PIE *(s)ker- (1) "to cut" (see shear (v.)).

According to etymologists originally with a sense of "division" between land and water. But if the word began on the North Sea coast of the continent, it might as well have meant originally "land 'cut off' from the mainland by tidal marshes" (cf. Old Norse skerg "an isolated rock in the sea," related to sker "to cut, shear"). Old English words for "coast, shore" were strand (n.), waroþ, ofer. Few Indo-European languages have such a single comprehensive word for "land bordering water" (Homer uses one word for sandy beaches, another for rocky headlands). General application to "country near a seacoast" is attested from 1610s.

mid-14c., "to prop, support with a prop;" of obscure etymology though widespread in West Germanic; cf. Middle Dutch schooren "to prop up, support," Old Norse skorða (n.) "a piece of timber set up as a support." Related: Shored; shoring. Also as a noun, "post or beam for temporary support of something" (mid-15c.), especially an oblique timber to brace the side of a building or excavation.

Idioms and Phrases with shore up

shore up

Support, prop, as in The new law was designed to shore up banks in danger of failure. This expression derives from the noun shore, meaning “prop,” a beam or timber propped against a structure to provide support. The verb shore dates from 1340 and was first recorded in a figurative context in 1581.