thole
1 Americannoun
verb (used with object)
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tholes,
present (3rd person singular)
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tholed,
past participle, past
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tholing
present participle
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
-
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
-
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:
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
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
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’t had been a regular boat’s oar I’d a heerd the thumpin’ against the thole pins.”
From Gwen Wynn A Romance of the Wye by Mayne Reid
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 W. S. (Walter S.) Stacey
They lie athwart the tholes, their blades dipping in the water, with no hand upon the grasp.
From The Castaways by Lolbran Pearse
Directly darkness set in we lowered a boat, the oars and tholes being muffled to deaden all sound.
From A Lad of Grit A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea in Restoration Times by Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman
But there, seated in his boat, was Alan, apparently idly adrift, for one oar floated in the water alongside, and the other swung listlessly from the tholes.
From The Divine Adventure Volume IV by Fiona Macleod
When he began to pull again the oars made no noise against the tholes, and he dipped the blades gently into the water, as he pulled past the tower into the sheltered bay beyond.
From The Children of the King by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford
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 Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
There was One tholed for me the lash and the buffet, and answer'd never a word.
From A Knight of the Nets by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
So they pushed out to sea, and hard weather they tholed.
From The Life and Death of Cormac the Skald by W. G. (William Gershom) Collingwood
The mony hardships I ha'e tholed Sin' I left Larocklea, I maun na tell, for it would bring The saut tear in thine e'e.
From The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume IV. The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century by Charles Rogers
"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 Sir Hall Caine
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 Charles Martin Hardie
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 Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
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 Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
I think I would not be tholing that either, my dear," cried he in a fierce voice, "but the lantern has to be lighted and the fire.
From The McBrides A Romance of Arran by John Sillars
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 Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
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.
