sufferance
Americannoun
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tolerance arising from failure to prohibit; tacit permission
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capacity to endure pain, injury, etc
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the state or condition of suffering
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archaic patient endurance
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with reluctance
Other Word Forms
- nonsufferance noun
Etymology
Origin of sufferance
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English sufferaunce, sufferanse, from Old French so(u)france, from Late Latin sufferentia, equivalent to suffer(re) to suffer + -entia -ence, -ance
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.
Perhaps for some—the intrepid and legendary explorers and today's possessed polar workers — the inexplicable pull of the pole stems from the sufferance of a magnetic drive.
From Salon
“He owns them absolutely. He crushed them and they exist only by his sufferance,” said Fried.
From Seattle Times
“He’s caught between the reality that he knows and understands and the perspectives and desires and agendas of the owners at whose sufferance he serves,” Edwards said.
From Washington Post
It is a story about who gets to go where, who gets to exist safely in public, and who is only there on sufferance.
From Washington Post
“The message they are getting is, ‘You are here on sufferance,’” he added.
From New York Times
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.
