wear on

English

Verb

wear on (third-person singular simple present wears on, present participle wearing on, simple past wore on, past participle worn on)

1. (transitive) To irritate.
   • 2007, Stephen L. Carter, The Emperor of Ocean Park, page 398:

     But his didacticism is beginning to wear on me, and I wonder if I am on a fool's errand.

2. (intransitive) (chiefly of time) To persist or continue with increasing exhaustion.
   • 2000, Ben Bernanke, “The Macroeconomics of the Great Depression”, in Essays on the great depression, page 32:

     One possible reconciliation of the cross-section and time-series results is that actual wages paid fell relative to reported or official wage rates as the Depression wore on.

   • 2010 December 28, Owen Phillips, “Sunderland 0 - 2 Blackpool”, in BBC‎^[1]:

     But as the second half wore on, Sunderland piled forward at every opportunity and their relentless pressure looked certain to be rewarded in the closing stages.

Anagrams

• Rowena