thole
1 Americannoun
verb (used with object)
verb
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dialect (tr) to put up with; bear
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an archaic word for suffer
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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tholesimple
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tholessimple
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have tholedperfect
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has tholedperfect
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am tholingprogressive
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are tholingprogressive
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is tholingprogressive
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have been tholingperfect progressive
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has been tholingperfect progressive
Past
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tholedsimple
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had tholedperfect
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was tholingprogressive
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were tholingprogressive
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had been tholingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of thole1
before 900; Middle English tholle, Old English tholl; cognate with Low German dolle, Old Norse thollr; akin to Old Norse thǫll young fir-tree
Origin of thole2
First recorded before 900; Middle English tholen, Old English tholian; cognate with Old Norse thola, Gothic thulan; akin to Greek tlênai “to bear, endure,” Latin tolerāre ( see tolerate)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Along New England's shores, the squeak of a fisherman's oars against thole pins sounded lonely and clear in the fog of early morning, lately shrill with the cries of the vacationist and his young.
From Time Magazine Archive
It was with muffled oars against thole pins that New England fishermen ferried Washington across the Delaware .
From Time Magazine Archive
In truth, they seem far from natural thole mates, he a fearless blue-water Tarzan, she a slightly petrified British Jane.
From Time Magazine Archive
He fitted the rope lashings of the oars onto the thole pins and, leaning forward against the thrust of the blades in the water, he began to row out of the harbour in the dark.
From "The Old Man and The Sea" by Ernest Hemingway
If that be sinful, let me thole the wages of my sin.
From Prisoners of Conscience by Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston
Says Vidyapati: The Lord of lovers Sorely tholes the sight of Radha's loveliness.
From Vidy?pati: Bang?ya pad?bali; songs of the love of R?dh? and Krishna by Vidy?pati Th?kura
Young William dashed the sweat from his eyes, wiped his palms on his hips, and fitted the sweeps again to the wooden tholes.
From The Black Bag by Vance, Louis Joseph
A faint creaking sound where they rubbed on the tholes, and then the regular measured dip, dip, and splash, splash.
From The Adventures of Don Lavington Nolens Volens by Fenn, George Manville
The oars were allowed to swing from the tholes, and the boat was left to glide slowly downwards, while in their smart orderly way her crew prepared for action.
From The Ocean Cat's Paw The Story of a Strange Cruise by Stacey, W. S. (Walter S.)
It tholes storms, and is glad in the sunshine, and if it didna bear fruit, when it was weel cared for, it wad deserve to be cut doon and burnt.
From A Daughter of Fife by Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston
Charlie had tholed prison for Prince Charles, and had seen Provost Morison drink the Prince's health in wine and proclaim him Regent at the Cross of Aberdeen.
From The Valet's tragedy, and other studies by Lang, Andrew
"Dree out the inch when ye've tholed the span," cried Matthew; "I'd nivver strain lang at sic a wee gnat as that."
From The Shadow of a Crime A Cumbrian Romance by Caine, Hall, Sir
But wha or what will bring us back the good days we hae lost forever out o' our little lives while we tholed this weary war?
From A Song of a Single Note A Love Story by Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston
How we tholed it sae lang I dinna ken.
From Neville Trueman, the Pioneer Preacher : a tale of the war of 1812 by Withrow, W. H. (William Henry)
But within me I felt desperately ill-prepared: yet, for the sake of the banner I carried, I tholed and said nothing.
From The Men of the Moss-Hags Being a history of adventure taken from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway by Crockett, S. R. (Samuel Rutherford)
Thrice that night, my dreams being troubled, I awoke and stretched myself to see Billy pacing grimly in the moonlight between us and the gateway, tholing his penance.
From Sir John Constantine Memoirs of His Adventures At Home and Abroad and Particularly in the Island of Corsica: Beginning with the Year 1756 by Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, Sir
No, and I am thinking nothing worse can come to the little mistress than the sorrow she is tholing now.
From A Knight of the Nets by Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston
So, conscience being a brave supporter, I abode in silence, though not without many queer and qualmish p. 148thoughts, and a pit-patting of the heart, not unco pleasant in the tholing.
From The Life of Mansie Wauch tailor in Dalkeith by Hardie, Charles Martin
So, conscience being a brave supporter, I abode in silence, though not without many queer and qualmish thoughts, and a pit-patting of the heart, not unco pleasant in the tholing.
From The Life of Mansie Wauch Tailor in Dalkeith, written by himself by Moir, David Macbeth
Some indeed blamed her for not tholing her grief until her husband came back, but not a single heart suspected her of a liaison with her old lover.
From A Knight of the Nets by Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
