shore

Related to shore: shore up, Shore hardness

shore up

To give someone or something robust support in the face of difficulty or to prevent potential failure. A noun or pronoun can be used between "shore" and "up." Workers are trying to shore up the levee to prevent a failure. His kindness and generosity shored me up while I dealt with the aftermath of my divorce. The government's actions are meant to shore up the financial companies it deems to be "too big to fail."
See also: shore, up

spend like a sailor (on (shore) leave)

To spend excessively, extravagantly, or wastefully. Now don't go spending like a sailor on shore leave just because you got a bit of a tax refund from the government. The local council has been spending like sailors on this new tram project, while other existing public transport goes into disrepair. Every time my husband's paycheck comes through, he goes out to the pubs and spends like a sailor on leave!
See also: like, sailor, spend
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

shore someone up

Fig. to (figuratively) prop up or support someone. Mary's solid character and personality helped shore her up during her recent problems with the law. Everyone co-operated to shore up John when his mother died.
See also: shore, up

shore something up

to prop up or support something. The fence fell over, so we shored it up with more posts. The storm weakened the foundation of our house, and we had to have workers shore up the house.
See also: shore, up
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

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.
See also: shore, up
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

shore up

v.
To support something with or as if with a prop: The carpenters shored up the sagging floors. The peace initiative was failing, so the leaders met to shore it up.
See also: shore, up
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • not do (someone or oneself) any favors
  • rescue from
  • rescue from (someone or something)
  • identify with
  • attune to
  • ask back
  • orient
  • orient to
  • orient to (something)
  • involved with
References in classic literature
The fluviatile trees next the shore are the slender eyelashes which fringe it, and the wooded hills and cliffs around are its overhanging brows.
When the surface is considerably agitated there are no skaters nor water-bugs on it, but apparently, in calm days, they leave their havens and adventurously glide forth from the shore by short impulses till they completely cover it.
Walden & on the Duty of Civil Disobedience
Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore somewhere or other for water, for we had not a pint left in the boat; when and where to get to it was the point.
Once or twice in the daytime I thought I saw the Pico of Teneriffe, being the high top of the Mountain Teneriffe in the Canaries, and had a great mind to venture out, in hopes of reaching thither; but having tried twice, I was forced in again by contrary winds, the sea also going too high for my little vessel; so, I resolved to pursue my first design, and keep along the shore.
Robinson Crusoe
With redoubled energy she struck out in one last mighty effort to reach the shore. The tug of the current was strong upon her, like a giant hand reaching up out of the cruel river to bear her back to death.
The Monster Men
Nothing occurred till about nine o'clock, when we saw the two Italians leave the ship and pull along their side of the triangle toward the shore. Charley looked as unconcerned as could be, but before they had covered a quarter of the distance, he whispered to me:
When they were directly in line with the windmill, as near to the shore as to the ship, and nearer the shore than we had ever allowed them before, they grew suspicious.
Tales of the Fish Patrol
Now the canoe was within easy speaking distance of the shore.
If Malbihn really were dead he could continue on to join his fellows without fear; but should the Swede only be wounded he would be safer upon the far shore. Therefore he hesitated, holding the canoe in mid stream.
Son Of Tarzan
By the time the men got to the shore again with the pinnace our men began to appear; they came dropping in, not in two bodies as they went, but straggling here and there in such a manner, that a small force of resolute men might have cut them all off.
Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
If the sea had formerly eaten deeply into the islands, before they were protected by the reefs, thus having left a shallow ledge round them under water, the present shores would have been invariably bounded by great precipices, but this is most rarely the case.
Where the land slopes abruptly under water, these reefs are only a few yards in width, forming a mere ribbon or fringe round the shores: where the land slopes gently under the water the reef extends further, sometimes even as much as a mile from the land; but in such cases the soundings outside the reef always show that the submarine prolongation of the land is gently inclined.
The Voyage of the Beagle
The boat was instantly shoved from shore and every one caught up his rifle.
With all haste they moved their boat and shifted their camp, by which time the head of the column had reached the shore, and came pressing up the bank.
Adventures of Captain Bonneville USA in the Rocky Mountains and
She could not have forced the heavy dugout upstream against it, and all that was left her was to attempt either to make the shore without being seen by those upon the deck of the Kincaid, or to throw herself upon their mercy--otherwise she must be swept out to sea.
The Beasts of Tarzan