SUFFERING • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Suffering

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/sˈəfərɪŋ/ /sˈəfrɪŋ/ 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."

noun

Suffering n. The bearing of pain, inconvenience, or loss; pain endured; distress, loss, or injury incurred; as, sufferings by pain or sorrow; sufferings by want or by wrongs. "Souls in sufferings tried."

adjective

Suffering adj. Being in pain or grief; having loss, injury, distress, etc.

See images of 'Suffering'

Etymology of 'Suffering'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Suffering" Quotes from Famous Books

... that if he associated with such men as Mogan he must suffer the consequences. The boy then went home, and securing an old cap and ball revolver, came back to the street. Mogan began on him again, and after suffering his abuse for some time, drew the revolver and shot him through the chest. Mogan ran a short distance and drawing his revolver, started back. Seeing that young Barnes was ready for him, he turned off, walked a short distance, sank down and died the next day. The affair created some excitement. ...

— Reminiscences of a Pioneer • Colonel William Thompson

... reasoning intelligence! Even after all the pollen has been deposited on the sticky stigmas of various blossoms, stump-like caudicles to which the two little sacs were attached have been found still plastered on a long-suffering bee. But so rich in nectar are the moisture-loving orchids that, to obtain a draught, the sticky plasters which she must carry do not seem too dear a price to pay. In this showy orchis the nectar often rises an eighth of an inch ...

— Wild Flowers, An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and - Their Insect Visitors - - Title: Nature's Garden • Neltje Blanchan

... the new demand for political enfranchisement arises from a desire to remedy the unsatisfactory and degrading social conditions which are responsible for so much wrongdoing and wretchedness. The fate of all the unfortunate, the suffering, the criminal, is daily forced upon public attention in painful and intimate ways. But because of the tendency to nationalize all industrial and commercial questions, to make the state responsible for the care of the helpless, to safeguard by law the food ...

— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 21 - The Recent Days (1910-1914) • Charles F. Horne, Editor

... securely, yet so as to cause him the least suffering, and then proceeded to improvise a gag. At this point his calmness disappeared, and for a short time he looked both ...

— My Sword's My Fortune - A Story of Old France • Herbert Hayens

... indeed anywhere whatsoever."[232] Man, however, by his free will causes evil in the human sphere; and when God formed in man a rational nature capable of choosing for itself, moral evil became the necessary contrary of good.[233] Moreover, the punitive activity of God, though it seems to cause suffering and misery, is in truth a good, simulating evil, and if men judged the universal process as a whole, they would find it all good. The existence of evil involves no derogation from ...

— Philo-Judaeus of Alexandria • Norman Bentwich

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