suffer
[suhf-er]
- to undergo or feel pain or distress: The patient is still suffering.
- to sustain injury, disadvantage, or loss: One's health suffers from overwork. The business suffers from lack of capital.
- to undergo a penalty, as of death: The traitor was made to suffer on the gallows.
- to endure pain, disability, death, etc., patiently or willingly.
- to undergo, be subjected to, or endure (pain, distress, injury, loss, or anything unpleasant): to suffer the pangs of conscience.
- to undergo or experience (any action, process, or condition): to suffer change.
- to tolerate or allow: I do not suffer fools gladly.
Origin of suffer
Synonyms
See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com5. sustain. 7. stomach, stand, abide.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for suffer
Contemporary Examples
I suffer from no delusion that the justice system treats black and white equally.
“One-third of South Asians and more than half of all Sub-Saharan Africans suffer from malnutrition or undernutrition,” he writes.
The birds are debeaked, suffer ulcers, and terrible feet conditions.
Take responsibility for an endless stream of people, even as our own suffer, and struggle to get policy relief from Washington.
He did suffer from ‘Black Dog’ [depression] as he called it and having something to concentrate on was therapeutic for him.
Churchill’s Secret Treasures for Sale: A British PM’s Life on the Auction BlockTom Teodorczuk
December 8, 2014
Historical Examples
But here, run away with my pen, I suffer my mother to be angry with me on her own account.
Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9)Samuel Richardson
If we permit our economy to drift and decline, the vulnerable will suffer most.
In a land of healing miracles, neighbors must not suffer and die unattended.
And yet if I suffer it can only be with what I may call a curative suffering.
The Conquest of FearBasil King
He must suffer more, must lose more, must pay more with happiness for his folly.
Within the LawMarvin Dana
suffer
- to undergo or be subjected to (pain, punishment, etc)
- (tr) to undergo or experience (anything)to suffer a change of management
- (intr) to be set at a disadvantagethis author suffers in translation
- to be prepared to endure (pain, death, etc)he suffers for the cause of freedom
- (tr) archaic to permit (someone to do something)suffer the little children to come unto me
- suffer from
- to be ill with, esp recurrently
- to be given tohe suffers from a tendency to exaggerate
Word Origin
C13: from Old French soffrir, from Latin sufferre, from sub- + ferre to bear
usage
It is better to avoid using the words suffer and sufferer in relation to chronic illness or disability. They may be considered demeaning and disempowering. Suitable alternative are have, experience, be diagnosed with
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for suffer
v.
early 13c., "to be made to undergo, endure" (pain, death, punishment, judgment, grief), from Anglo-French suffrir, Old French sufrir, from Vulgar Latin *sufferire, variant of Latin sufferre "to bear, undergo, endure, carry or put under," from sub "up, under" (see sub-) + ferre "to carry" (see infer).
Replaced Old English þolian, þrowian. Meaning "to meekly submit to hardship" is from late 13c. That of "to undergo" (distress, suffering, etc.) is mid-14c. Meaning "to tolerate, allow" something to occur or continue is recorded from mid-13c. Related: Suffered; suffering.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with suffer
suffer
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
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