were

verb

1. (form-of, indicative, past, second-person, singular)second-person singular simple past indicative of be

   “John, you were the only person to see him.”

2. (form-of, indicative, past, plural)plural simple past indicative of be

   “We were about to leave.”

   “Mary and John, you were right.”

   “They were a fine group.”

   “They were to be the best of friends from that day on.”

3. simple subjunctive of be

   “I wish that it were Sunday.”

   “I wish that I were with you.”

   “Were it simply that she wore a hat, I would not be upset at all. (= If it were simply...) Were father a king, we would have war. (= If father were a king,...)”

   “A long shot, it may be, at immortality, but longer ones have hit; or Guido Fawkes, William Tell, and Samuel Pepys were forgotten now.”

   “Maccabi would have been out of contention were it not for Stoke's profligacy, but their fortune eventually ran out as the visitors opened the scoring.”

4. (Ireland, Multicultural-London-English, Northern-England, first-person, form-of, indicative, past, singular, third-person)first/third-person singular simple past indicative of be.

noun

1. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of wer (“man; wergeld”).

   “1799-1805, Sharon Turner, History of the Anglo-Saxons Every man was valued at a certain sum, which was called his were.”

   “If by that he failed to pay or give security for the were, or fine, at which murder was legally rated; he might be put to death by the relatives of the murdered man.”

   “Written statutes busied themselves only with the amount of the were, or fine, or (for the first century after the Conquest) with the method of procedure.”

2. (slang)The collective name for any kind of person that changes into another form under certain conditions, including the werewolf.