endure

[ en-door, -dyoor ]
See synonyms for: endureenduredenduresenduring on Thesaurus.com

verb (used with object),en·dured, en·dur·ing.
  1. to hold out against; sustain without impairment or yielding; undergo: to endure great financial pressures with equanimity.

  2. to bear without resistance or with patience; tolerate: I cannot endure your insults any longer.

  1. to admit of; allow; bear: His poetry is such that it will not endure a superficial reading.

verb (used without object),en·dured, en·dur·ing.
  1. to continue to exist; last: These words will endure as long as people live who love freedom.

  2. to support adverse force or influence of any kind; suffer without yielding; suffer patiently: Even in the darkest ages humanity has endured.

  1. to have or gain continued or lasting acknowledgment or recognition, as of worth, merit or greatness: His plays have endured for more than three centuries.

Origin of endure

1
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English enduren, from Anglo-French, Old French endurer, from Latin indūrāre “to harden, make lasting,” equivalent to in- in-2 + dūrāre “to last, be or become hard,” derivative of dūrus “hard”

synonym study For endure

2. See bear1. 4. See continue.

word story For endure

From a word for a tree known for its hard and durable wood, we get endure, a word that evokes both lastingness (durability) and the ability to withstand or bear. Its history tells you why.
Endure comes from Old French endurer “to make hard, harden, bear.” The Old French verb is a regular development of Latin indūrāre, with the same meanings. Indūrāre is a derivative of the adjective dūrus, which has a wide range of meanings, including “hard, firm, solid, constipated, dull, obtuse, pitiless, oppressive.”
Dūrus comes from an unrecorded drūr(us), dūr- (drūr-), being the Latin development of the Proto-Indo-European root deru-, doru-, drew-, drū- “oak tree, tree,” which is very common throughout the Indo-European languages and has many variants and suffixes. In Greek, dóry means “wood, tree, tree trunk, spear”; drŷs means “tree, oak tree” (sacred to Zeus); Dōrieús “a Dorian” was “a Greek (originally) from Dōrís (the ancient Greek region of Doris, literally, Forestlands).” The Old Irish noun drūi “druid” ultimately comes from dru-wid- “strong seer”; from the variant drew-. Old Church Slavonic has drĕvo “tree.” In Germanic, drew- becomes triu “tree, wood,” which becomes trēow in Old English (English tree ).

Other words for endure

Opposites for endure

Other words from endure

  • en·dur·er, noun
  • un·en·dured, adjective

Words Nearby endure

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use endure in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for endure

endure

/ (ɪnˈdjʊə) /


verb
  1. to undergo (hardship, strain, privation, etc) without yielding; bear

  2. (tr) to permit or tolerate

  1. (intr) to last or continue to exist

Origin of endure

1
C14: from Old French endurer, from Latin indūrāre to harden, from dūrus hard

Derived forms of endure

  • endurable, adjective
  • endurability or endurableness, noun
  • endurably, adverb

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