bear4 (ber)

[Also written beer, and archaically bere, G. bühre, a pillow-case.] A pillow-case: usually in composition, pillow - bear. [Now only dialectal.] Many a pylowe and every bere Of clothe of Reynes to slepe softe. Chaucer, Death of Blanche, 1. 254. supportable. You are a great bear, I'm sure, to abuse my relations. Sheridan, School for Scandal, iii. 1. 5. [Prob. in allusion to the proverb "to sell bear's skin before one has caught the bear." (There is a similar proverb about the lion's skin.) One who sold stocks in this way was formerly called a bearskin jobber, later simply a bear; now usually explained, in connection with its correlative bull, as in allusion to a bear, "which pulls down with its paws," as opposed to a bull, "which to es with its horns."] In exchanges: (at) Stock which one contracts to deliver at a future date, though not in the po e ion of the seller at the time the contract is made: in the phrases to buy or sell the bear. (b) One who sells stocks, grain, provisions, or other commodities neither owned nor po e ed by him at the time of selling them, but which he expects to buy at a lower price before the time fixed for making delivery. (c) One who endeavors to bring down prices, in order that he may buy cheap: opposed to a bull, who tries to raise the price, that he may sell dear. Every one who draws a bill or i ues a note unconsciously acts as a bear upon the gold market. Jevons, Money and Mech. of Ex- [change, p. 315. Common Yellow Bear (Spilosoma Virgin i ca ), natural size.