endure
to hold out against; sustain without impairment or yielding; undergo: to endure great financial pressures with equanimity.
to bear without resistance or with patience; tolerate: I cannot endure your insults any longer.
to admit of; allow; bear: His poetry is such that it will not endure a superficial reading.
to continue to exist; last: These words will endure as long as people live who love freedom.
to support adverse force or influence of any kind; suffer without yielding; suffer patiently: Even in the darkest ages humanity has endured.
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
1synonym study For endure
word story For endure
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
An essential conservative insight about everything is that nothing necessarily endures.
Will Senate Republicans allow their louts to rule the party? | George Will | February 12, 2021 | Washington PostThe two endure a terrifying adventure where survival is never guaranteed.
‘Little Nightmares II’ made me dread every moment. And I loved it. | Elise Favis | February 9, 2021 | Washington PostSince socializing in winter now requires us to endure frigid temperatures, at least in many parts of the country, a layer that won’t stay put just won’t do.
More responsible leadership could have made an immense difference in the suffering and the death that America has endured.
“We did the worst job in the world”: Lawrence Wright on America’s botched Covid-19 response | Sean Illing | February 9, 2021 | VoxThe reader must endure a slow start as various plotlines are established, but the pace quickens at the halfway mark.
Two historical mystery novels plunge readers into the past while keeping them guessing | Clare McHugh | February 8, 2021 | Washington Post
This is a degrading and shameful state which no man or woman should be forced to endure.
The Sony Hack and America’s Craven Capitulation To Terror | David Keyes | December 19, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTBut alas, a snub is yet another of the many indignities Valerie Cherish shall endure.
15 Enraging Golden Globe TV Snubs and Surprises: Amy Poehler, 'Mad Men' & More | Kevin Fallon | December 11, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTMary Soames is an exception to the rule that gilded offspring endure life rather than enjoy it.
Churchill’s Secret Treasures for Sale: A British PM’s Life on the Auction Block | Tom Teodorczuk | December 8, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTSome might lack the fortitude—or masochism—required to endure a grueling campaign (Rubio).
What Republicans Need Right Now Is a Good Internal Fight | James Poulos | November 6, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST“That was the first time I realized I would endure a lot of discrimination,” she says.
How ‘Titanic ’Helped This Brave Young Woman Escape North Korea’s Totalitarian State | Lizzie Crocker | October 31, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTBut this alliance is rotten, and cannot endure; the Western men are no partizans of slavery.
Who could suppose that two tolerably civilized nations would endure this in the middle of 1851?
Glances at Europe | Horace Greeley(b) All those who are under 20 and more than 50 years of age, and who are strong enough to endure the fatigue of a campaign.
The Philippine Islands | John ForemanThough built upon the sand, they still endured, and would continue to endure.
The Wave | Algernon BlackwoodIt is astonishing how much petting a big boy of ten can endure when he is quite sure that there is no one to laugh at him.
Kipling Stories and Poems Every Child Should Know, Book II | Rudyard Kipling
British Dictionary definitions for endure
/ (ɪnˈdjʊə) /
to undergo (hardship, strain, privation, etc) without yielding; bear
(tr) to permit or tolerate
(intr) to last or continue to exist
Origin of endure
1Derived forms of endure
- endurable, adjective
- endurability or endurableness, noun
- endurably, adverb
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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