Dere
Origin 1
From Middle English dere, from Old English dæru, daru ("injury, hurt, harm, damage, calamity; loss, deprivation"), from Proto-Germanic *darÅ ("damage, injury"), from Proto-Indo-European *dÊ°Å(w)- ("to sharpen"). Cognate with Middle Dutch dare, dere, Middle Low German dere, Old High German tara ("damage, injury").
Origin 2
From Middle English deren, derien, from Old English derian ("to damage, injure, hurt, harm"), from Proto-Germanic *darjanÄ… ("to injure, harm"), from Proto-Indo-European *dÊ°Å(w)- ("to sharpen"). Cognate with Scots dere, deir ("to harm, hurt, injure"), Saterland Frisian dera ("to injure, damage"), West Frisian deare, derre ("to harm, injure"), Dutch deren ("to injure, damage, scathe"), Middle High German tern ("to injure"). Related to dart.
Verb
- (transitive, UK dialectal) To hurt; harm; injure; wound.
- c. 1390, Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Squire's Tale’, Canterbury Tales:And of Achilles with his queynte spere,
For he koude with it bothe heele and dere .... - 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book XIII:Than herde he a voyce sey, ‘Sir Galahad, I se there envyrowne aboute the so many angels that my power may nat deare the!’
- (transitive, UK dialectal) To annoy, trouble, grieve.