Etymology From Middle English pore, from Old French pore, from Latin porus, from Ancient Greek πόρος (póros, “passage”). Displaced native English sweat hole from Middle English swet hole, which might have been a reformation of Old English swātþȳrel (literally “sweat hole”), which competed with līcþēote (literally “body pipe”).
1
A tiny opening in the skin.
I could sense the sweat dripping out of all my pores.
2
By extension any small opening or interstice, especially one of many, or one allowing the passage of a fluid.
the pores of a rock.
Under certain conditions tangential sections indicate that the zoœcial walls and the intermural space are seemingly pierced by communication pores or connecting foramina.1903, Ray Smith Bassler, The Structural Features of the Bryozoan Genus Homotrypa, with Descriptions of Species from the Cincinnatian Group, page 570:
1 more example
After reading White’s vitriolic language, The New York Times facetiously remarked that “Kansas is bleeding from every pore of her vocabularium. Sharp’s rifles are discharging from the well-known Emporium of White & Son, unlimited, and Bibles are closed until after election.”1947, Walter Johnson, “The Rebirth of the Progressive Movement”, in William Allen White’s America, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, part IV (Normalcy and Reform), page 436:
From Middle English poren, pouren, puren (“to gaze intently, look closely”), from Old English *pūrian, from Proto-West Germanic *pūrōn, suggested by Old English spyrian (“to investigate, examine”). Akin to Saterland Frisian puurje (“to question, investigate; pry, prod”), West Frisian poarje (“to poke, prod”), Middle Dutch poren (“to pore, look”), Dutch porren (“to poke, prod, stir, encourage, endeavour, attempt”), Low German purren (“to poke, stir”), Danish purre (“to poke, stir, rouse”), dialectal Swedish pora, pura, påra (“to work slowly and gradually, work deliberately”), Old English spor (“track, trace, vestige”). Compare also Middle English puren, piren (“to look, peer”). See peer.
1
To study meticulously; to go over again and again.
Yet each foreign post day she watched for the arrival of letters - knew the postmark, and watched me as I read. I found her often poring over the articles of Greek intelligence in the newspaper.1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter X, in The Last Man. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC: