endure








verb (used with object), en·dured, en·dur·ing.

  1. to hold out against; sustain without impairment or yielding; undergo: to endure great financial pressures with equanimity.
  2. to bear without resistance or with patience; tolerate: I cannot endure your insults any longer.
  3. to admit of; allow; bear: His poetry is such that it will not endure a superficial reading.

verb (used without object), en·dured, en·dur·ing.

  1. to continue to exist; last: These words will endure as long as people live who love freedom.
  2. to support adverse force or influence of any kind; suffer without yielding; suffer patiently: Even in the darkest ages humanity has endured.
  3. to have or gain continued or lasting acknowledgment or recognition, as of worth, merit or greatness: His plays have endured for more than three centuries.

verb

  1. to undergo (hardship, strain, privation, etc) without yielding; bear
  2. (tr) to permit or tolerate
  3. (intr) to last or continue to exist
v.

early 14c., “to undergo or suffer” (especially without breaking); late 14c. “to continue in existence,” from Old French endurer (12c.) “make hard, harden; bear, tolerate; keep up, maintain,” from Latin indurare “make hard,” in Late Latin “harden (the heart) against,” from in- (see in- (2)) + durare “to harden,” from durus “hard,” from PIE *deru- “be firm, solid.”

Replaced the important Old English verb dreogan (past tense dreag, past participle drogen), which survives in dialectal dree. Related: Endured; endures.

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