on sufferance

1. Barely tolerated; agreed to but unwillingly. For example, They rarely put a non-academic on the panel, so obviously I was there on sufferance. This expression uses sufferance in the sense of “toleration,” a usage obsolete except in this idiom. [Mid-1500s]

Example Sentences

All others are here on sufferance and must remember their place as such.

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It is a story about who gets to go where, who gets to exist safely in public, and who is only there on sufferance.

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“The message they are getting is, ‘You are here on sufferance,’” he added.

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They do have a certain adherence to the idea that this is the national homeland of Hindus, and everybody else is a second-class citizen, here only on sufferance.

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What was worse, Lola had made it clear that she too would be acting on sufferance.

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