DictionaryAI

endure

verb
in-DUUR/ɪnˈd(j)ʊɹ/UKin-DYUUR/ɪnˈdjʊə̯(ɹ)/

Formsendures, enduring, endured

6 meanings of endure

Practice

  1. 1
    verbtransitive
    To tolerate or put up with something unpleasant or difficult.

    Commuters endure long delays whenever the trains break down.

    He endured years of criticism before his work was recognized.

    Similartolerate, bear, stand, accept, take

  2. 2
    verbintransitive
    To go on existing or keep going in spite of difficulties and hardships.

    Democratic institutions can endure only with active civic participation.

    Their love endured through decades of separation and hardship.

    Similarcontinue, persist, persevere, stay, abide

    Oppositefail, collapse

    Note

    Nothing is done to an object here. The verb stands alone, and what follows says how long or through what: endured for decades, endured through hardship. Tennyson's In Memoriam (1850) speaks of a life that "dies not, but endures with pain." Give the verb an object and it becomes the "put up with" meaning: popularity endures, but a person endures criticism.

  3. 3
    verbintransitive
    To remain firm under trial or suffering, bearing up under hardship without giving in.

    Faced with terrible loss, the family found the strength to endure.

    He endured patiently, refusing to let despair take hold.

    Similarsurvive, withstand, resist

    Oppositesuccumb, yield, surrender

    Note

    Holding firm is the oldest feel of the word, and the King James Bible of 1611 spells it indure: "Can thine heart indure, or can thine hands be strong." That spelling keeps the Latin prefix in- visible. Paired with strong hands, the heart that endures is one that does not give way. Resist and withstand are its near neighbors.

  4. 4
    verbtransitive
    To suffer something patiently, without complaint or resistance.

    The monks endure hardship as a form of spiritual discipline.

    She endured the insults quietly, never raising her voice.

    Similaraccept, withstand

    Oppositeresist, protest

    Note

    Sports reporting loves this sense. A team endures a night of total misery, as Phil McNulty wrote for BBC Sport in 2011. The object is usually a stretch of time filled with suffering: years of pain, a night of misery, a season of defeats. The pattern endure + a period + of + hardship is the one to borrow.

  5. 5
    verbintransitive
    To last; to remain in existence over time.

    Few empires endure once their unifying purpose fades.

    Her reputation endured long after the scandal was forgotten.

    Similarlast, remain, persist, live, prevail

    Oppositefade, perish, vanish

    Note

    Here nothing has to be overcome. Things simply outlast time. The King James Bible of 1611 says of a house that "it shall not endure," meaning only that it will not stand. Use this sense for buildings, reputations and feelings that last. When hardship comes into view, it shades into persisting against obstacles.

Less common meaning

  1. 6
    verbobsolete
    To harden, or to make firm and solid.
    Note

    The literal meaning hidden inside the word comes from Latin in- plus dūrus, "hard." To endure was once to make hard, just as indurate still means. This use is obsolete, so write harden instead. Yet that hardness explains holding firm under trial: what has been hardened does not yield.

Practice

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Origin

Endure comes from Middle English enduren, from Old French endurer, from Latin indūrō ('to make hard'). It is a doublet of dure and displaced the Old English word drēogan, which survives dialectally as dree.