PERSIST • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Persist

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/pərsˈɪst/ Listen

verb

Persist v. i. (past & past part. persisted; pres. part. persisting) To stand firm; to be fixed and unmoved; to stay; to continue steadfastly; especially, to continue fixed in a course of conduct against opposing motives; to persevere; sometimes conveying an unfavorable notion, as of doggedness or obstinacy. "If they persist in pointing their batteries against particular persons, no laws of war forbid the making reprisals." "Some positive, persisting fops we know, Who, if once wrong, will needs be always so." "That face persists. It floats up; it turns over in my mind."

Synonyms: See Persevere, and Insist.

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Etymology of 'Persist'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Persist" Quotes from Famous Books

... in reality one of the causes why it was so unpopular. The nation had begun to be weary of controversy; in the religious as in the political world, there was arising a disposition not to disturb the prevailing quiet. The Deist was the enfant terrible of the period, who would persist in raising questions which men were not inclined to meddle with. It was therefore necessary to snub him; and accordingly ...

— The English Church in the Eighteenth Century • Charles J. Abbey and John H. Overton

... ancient rites do persist. To this hour the mountaineers of southwestern Virginia and eastern Tennessee believe that an iron ring on the third finger of the left hand will drive away rheumatism, and to my personal knowledge one fairly intelligent Virginian believed this so devoutly that he actually never suffered ...

— Popular Science Monthly Volume 86

... all I have ever written,' said Herbert. 'Mine were but crude dreams. I wished to see man noble and happy; but if he will persist in being vile and miserable, I must even be content. I can struggle for ...

— Venetia • Benjamin Disraeli

... something in all this that he failed to grasp. In any case, the frightful danger that threatened Rose Andree dominated the whole situation; and Renine was not the man to despise this threat and to persist out of vanity in a perilous course. Rose Andree's life ...

— The Eight Strokes of the Clock • Maurice Leblanc

... give you ample warning. The miners will declare a general strike if you persist in locking out half of them now that the winter weather has set in. The pits and the breakers can stand idle while the demand for coal at an advanced price is created by an artificial coal famine; but the miners have to be fed. They work like machines; but as yet they have ...

— The Transgressors - Story of a Great Sin • Francis A. Adams

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