Adjacent Words

Suffering definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SUF'FERING, ppr. Bearing; undergoing pain, inconvenience or damage; permitting; allowing.
SUF'FERING, 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.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: troubled by pain or loss; "suffering refugees"
2: very unhappy; full of misery; "he felt depressed and miserable"; "a message of hope for suffering humanity"; "wretched prisoners huddled in stinking cages" [syn: miserable, suffering, wretched] n
1: a state of acute pain [syn: agony, suffering, excruciation]
2: misery resulting from affliction [syn: suffering, woe]
3: psychological suffering; "the death of his wife caused him great distress" [syn: distress, hurt, suffering]
4: feelings of mental or physical pain [syn: suffering, hurt]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 14th century 1. the state or experience of one that suffers 2. pain Synonyms: see distress

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Suffer Suf"fer, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Suffered; p. pr. & vb. n. Suffering.] [OE. suffren, soffren, OF. sufrir, sofrir, F. souffrir, (assumed) LL. sofferire, for L. sufferre; sub under + ferre to bear, akin to E. bear. See Bear to support.] 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. --Milton. 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. --Shak. 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. --Lev. xix. 17. I suffer them to enter and possess. --Milton. Syn: To permit; bear; endure; support; sustain; allow; admit; tolerate. See Permit.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Suffering Suf"fer*ing, 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.'' --Keble.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Suffering Suf"fer*ing, a. Being in pain or grief; having loss, injury, distress, etc. -- Suf"fer*ing*ly, adv.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(sufferings) Suffering is serious pain which someone feels in their body or their mind. It has caused terrible suffering to animals... His many novels have portrayed the sufferings of his race. = torment N-UNCOUNT: also N in pl see also long-suffering

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

suf'-er-ing: A great variety of Hebrew and Greek expressions, too large to be here enumerated, have been translated by "suffering" and other forms derived from the same verb. The most obvious meanings of the word are the following:

(1) The commonest meaning perhaps in the English Versions of the Bible is "to permit," "to allow," "to give leave to": "Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away" (Mr 10:4).

(2) "To experience," "to go through,"' "to endure": "I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him" (Mt 27:19). A woman "had suffered many things of many physicians" (Mr 5:26). Other common phrases are "to suffer affliction" (1Th 3:4; Heb 11:25, the Revised Version (British and American) "share ill-treatment"), "to suffer hardship" (2Ti 2:9), "to suffer adversity" (Heb 13:3 the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) "to be ill-treated"), "to suffer dishonor" (the King James Version "shame," Ac 5:41), "to suffer violence," (Mt 11:12), "to suffer wrong" (Ac 7:24), "to suffer terror" (Ps 88:15), "to suffer shipwreck" (2Co 11:25), "to suffer hunger" (Ps 34:10; Pr 19:15), "to suffer thirst" (Job 24:11).

(3) "To put up with," "to tolerate": the King James Version, "For ye suffer fools gladly (the Revised Version (British and American) "ye bear with the foolish gladly"), seeing ye yourselves are wise" (2Co 11:1,9).

(4) "To undergo punishment": "Think ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they have suffered these things?" (Lu 13:2).

(5) "To sustain loss": "If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss" (1Co 3:15; also Php 3:8). (6) "To suffer death." Here the clearest references are to the suffering or passion of Christ, which indeed includes the enduring of untold hardships and affliction, all of which culminate in His vicarious death for man (Mt 16:21; Mr 8:31; 9:12; Lu 9:22; 17:25; 22:15; 24:26,46; Ac 3:18; 17:3; 26:23; 1Pe 3:18).

Suffering belongs to the discipline of all Christ's followers (Ro 8:17; 2Co 1:7; Ga 3:4; Php 3:10; 1Th 2:2; 2Th 1:5; 2Ti 2:12; 3:12; Jas 5:10; 1Pe 2:20 f; 3:14,17; 4:1,13,16; 5:10). Such suffering is called a suffering for God's or Christ's sake (Jer 15:15; Ac 9:16; Php 1:29; 2Ti 1:12). This fellowship in suffering unites us with the saints of God in all times (Jas 5:10), and is indeed a fellowship with the Lord Himself (Php 3:10), who uses this discipline to mold us more and more according to His character.

H. L. E. Luering

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Endurance, sufferance. 2. Pain, inconvenience, distress, misery, sufferance, passion. 3. Poverty, want.

Moby Thesaurus

Schmerz, ache, aches and pains, aching, admissive, adversity, afflicted, affliction, agonized, agony, allowing, blow, consenting, convulsed, cramp, crucified, cut, discomfort, distress, distressed, dolor, grief, hardship, harrowed, hurt, hurting, in distress, in pain, indulgent, injury, lacerated, lax, lenient, lesion, malaise, martyred, martyrized, misery, misfortune, nasty blow, nonprohibitive, on the rack, pain, pained, pang, passion, permissive, permitting, racked, shock, sore, sore spot, spasm, stress, stress of life, stroke, tender spot, throes, tolerant, tolerating, torment, tormented, torture, tortured, trial, tribulation, twisted, under the harrow, unprohibitive, wound, wounded, wrench, wrung