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.
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- 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.
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Origin of suffer
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comDictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
acceptableadmissibleallowableendurablelivablemanageablepassablesatisfactorysupportabletolerablesustainableExamples from the Web for sufferable
Historical Examples
It is so difficult to condole in a manner at all sufferable.
Trevethlan (Vol 3 of 3)William Davy Watson
Lady Ann was offended, and seriously: was alliance with such a woman permissible or sufferable?
There and BackGeorge MacDonald
Your Madame must be insufferable indeed, seeing that her knowledge of these subjects and men did not make her sufferable to you.
The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1 of 2)Frederic G. Kenyon
Even Bully Pigeon was sufferable (as Paddy observed), if he was not altogether agreeable.
The Three MidshipmenW.H.G. Kingston
Yet no man will, at this day, pretend that the Greek of his prize ode is sufferable.
sufferable
- able to be tolerated or suffered; endurable
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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
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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
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for sufferable
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.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with sufferable
suffer
see not suffer fools gladly.
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.