Definition of "blear"

A Promontory Wen, with grieſly grace,Stood high, upon the Handle of his Face:His blear Eyes ran in gutters to his Chin:His Beard was stubble, and his Cheeks were thin.

1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Sixth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […], page 95, lines 153–156

The Devil, now disguised as a half-wit peasant to Lars-Goren’s left, stood grinning, his blear eyes glittering.

1981, John Gardner, Freddy's Book, Abacus, published 1982, page 74

Thus I hurleMy dazling spells into the ſpungie aireOf power to cheate the eye with bleare illuſion,And give it falſe preſentments, […]

1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, page 6, lines 153-156

Orpheus, a one-eyed blearing Thracian, / The crowder of that barb’rous nation, / Was ballad-singer by vocation;

18th c., attributed to Jonathan Swift, “The Story of Orpheus, Burlesqued,” in Walter Scott (ed.), The Works of Jonathan Swift, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 2nd edition, 1883, Volume 10, p. 403

The street-lamps blearing thro’ the rainy rout,Each like a winking, sickly evil-eye.

1886, John Grosvenor Wilson, “A Rainy Day in Town”, in Lyrics of Life‎, New York: Caxton Book Concern, page 146

Let loose thy snow-winged dove, to rise / And fly across the seething blood-mad world. / To flutter over fields where that dread Silence is! / To light on upturned faces blearing at the skies / And curiously peck at dead men’s eyes.

1917, Madge Morris, The “Red Wind Blows” in The Lure of the Desert Land and Other Poems, San Francisco: Har Wagner, p. 83

I Smile to ſee how you deuiſe, / New maſking nets my eies to bleare: / your ſelf you cannot ſo diſguiſe: / But as you are, you muſt appeare.

1584, Anonymous, Sonnet, in Clement Robinson et al., A Handefull of Pleasnt Delites, London: Richard Ihones, reprinted from the original edition for the Spenser Society, 1871, p. 52

Here’s Lucentio, right ſonne to the right Vincentio,That haue by marriage made thy daughter mine,While counterfeit ſuppoſes bleer’d thine eine.

c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene i], page 227, columns 1–2

[…] if it come to prohibiting, there is not ought more likely to be prohibited then truth it ſelf; whoſe firſt appearance to our eyes blear’d and dimm’d with prejudice and cuſtom, is more unſightly and unplauſible then many errors, ev’n as the perſon is of many a great man ſlight and contemptible to ſee to.

1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], page 37

[…] I remember observing the contrast the neat, bright doctor, with his powder as white as snow, and his bright, black eyes and pleasant manners, made with the coltish country folk, and above all, with that filthy, heavy, bleared scarecrow of a pirate of ours, sitting far gone in rum, with his arms on the table.

1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter I, in Treasure Island, London, Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, part I (The Old Buccaneer), page 7

The latter looked out with three tiers of vacant melancholy windows, which were blank and dreary, save that here and there a “To Let” card had developed like a cataract upon the bleared panes.

1887, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “A Study in Scarlet”, in Beeton’s Christmas Annual, London, New York, N.Y., Melbourne, Vic.: Ward, Lock & Co., part I (Being a reprint from the reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D., […]), chapter III (The Lauriston Gardens Mystery), page 17

He was useful to the man, for his sharp young eyes could pick up net or trawl buoys, white with a stripe of scarlet, far quicker than the rum-bleared eyes of his stepfather.

1928, Frank Parker Day, chapter 1, in Rockbound‎

When winter blears bleakly the forest,And the water binds gray to its blue,Safe and sound in her covert I leave her,Till spring calls again my canoe.

1865, Alfred Billings Street, “My Canoe”, in Forest Pictures in the Adirondacks‎, New York: Gregory, page 33

Now, one among the foremost, looking up / By chance, with horror saw, in farthest sky / Fronting their course, a troublous film of cloud,— / A strange, dark, troublous film of cloud,— / Blearing the beauty of the crystal wall.

1888, David Atwood Wasson, “Babes of God” Part II in Poems, Boston: Lee & Shepard, p. 36

He stared at but did not see the bleared reflection of the flanking cherubs a hundred feet above the steel-grey veneer of water.

1946, Mervyn Peake, “Here and There”, in Titus Groan, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode