SUFFER • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Suffer

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/sˈəfər/ Listen

verb

Suffer v. t. (past & past part. suffered; pres. part. suffering)

1.

To feel, or endure, with pain, annoyance, etc.; to submit to with distress or grief; to undergo; as, to suffer pain of body, or grief of mind.

2.

To endure or undergo without sinking; to support; to sustain; to bear up under. "Our spirit and strength entire, Strongly to suffer and support our pains."

3.

To undergo; to be affected by; to sustain; to experience; as, most substances suffer a change when long exposed to air and moisture; to suffer loss or damage. "If your more ponderous and settled project May suffer alteration."

4.

To allow; to permit; not to forbid or hinder; to tolerate. "Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him." "I suffer them to enter and possess."

Synonyms: To permit; bear; endure; support; sustain; allow; admit; tolerate. See Permit.

Suffer v. i.

1.

To feel or undergo pain of body or mind; to bear what is inconvenient; as, we suffer from pain, sickness, or sorrow; we suffer with anxiety. "O well for him whose will is strong! He suffers, but he will not suffer long."

2.

To undergo punishment; specifically, to undergo the penalty of death. "The father was first condemned to suffer upon a day appointed, and the son afterwards the day following."

3.

To be injured; to sustain loss or damage. "Public business suffers by private infirmities."

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Etymology of 'Suffer'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Suffer" Quotes from Famous Books

... political life of nations is to establish national education without Christianity. This is systematically aimed at wherever the revolution has its way. The period and policy of Julian are returning. Some think this bodes ill for the Church; no, it is the State that will suffer. The secret societies are hurrying the civil governments of the world, and mostly the governments who disbelieve in their existence, to the brink of a precipice, over which monarchies, and law, and civil order, will ultimately fall and ...

— Lothair • Benjamin Disraeli

... I have no friend to turn to and I fear the perfidy of Fortune, for thou knowest that the wrath of parents is no light thing. Wherefore I come to thee, O uncle, seeing that to my father thou art known, and I desire of thy favour that thou suffer me abide in the garden till the end of the day, or pass the night there, till Allah grant good understanding between myself and my sire." When the old man heard these words he was concerned anent what had occurred and said, "O my lord, dost thou give me leave to go to ...

— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 7 • Richard F. Burton

... that his brother, as he had found him again, would be the cause of many a hindrance. He knew that he was taking a heavy burden upon himself when he promised the inspector that the work itself should not suffer by reason of the two-headed management. The honest man, who guessed Apollonius' purpose and only respected him the more on that account, obtained the consent of the council for him, and silently resolved that wherever it should be necessary he would take the ...

— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. IX - Friedrich Hebbel and Otto Ludwig • Various

... or cook suffer any scholar or scholars whatever, except the Fellows, Masters of Art, Fellow-Commoners or officers of the House, to come into the butteries, &c.—Ibid., ...

— A Collection of College Words and Customs • Benjamin Homer Hall

... stop him?" Lucile asked herself. The question was left all undecided. The little drama being enacted was too fascinating to suffer interruption. It was like something that had happened in her earlier childhood when she had lain in a garret watching a mother mouse carry away her five children, Lucile thereby suffering a loss of six cents, for she would have been paid a cent apiece for the ...

— The Blue Envelope • Roy J. Snell

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