tolerate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to allow the existence, presence, practice, or act of without prohibition or hindrance; permit.
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to endure without repugnance; put up with.
I can tolerate laziness, but not incompetence.
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Medicine/Medical. to endure or resist the action of (a drug, poison, etc.).
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Obsolete. to experience, undergo, or sustain, as pain or hardship.
verb
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to treat with indulgence, liberality, or forbearance
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to permit
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to be able to bear; put up with
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med to have tolerance for (a drug, poison, etc)
Other Word Forms
- nontolerated adjective
- nontolerative adjective
- tolerative adjective
- tolerator noun
- untolerated adjective
- untolerating adjective
- untolerative adjective
Etymology
Origin of tolerate
First recorded in 1525–35; from Latin tolerātus “borne,” past participle of tolerāre “to bear”; akin to thole 2
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.
Today, they are still used in consumer and industrial products because they repel water, grease, and stains and can tolerate heat and corrosion.
From Science Daily
Miss Allen was known as “a maiden lady, sharp and wiry, with a grain of wit which could not tolerate nonsense.”
From Literature
The Fed also will have to tolerate more volatility in overnight interest rates.
But he cautions that “healthcare can’t tolerate significant errors. We have to minimize the errors, the hallucinations, the confabulations, the BS and the sycophancy” that AI technology commonly displays.
From Los Angeles Times
“For decades, Congress has tolerated a system in which nearly half of full-time workers and most part-time and gig workers lack access to a workplace retirement plan. Addressing that coverage gap is not trivial.”
From MarketWatch
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.
