Adjacent Words

Tolerate definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

TOL'ERATE, v.t. [L. tolero, from tollo, to lift.] To suffer to be or to be done without prohibition or hinderance; to allow or permit negatively, by not preventing; not to restrain; as, to tolerate opinions or practices. The protestant religion is tolerated in France, and the Roman Catholic in Great Britain.
Crying should not be tolerated in children.
The law of love tolerates no vice, and patronizes every virtue.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: put up with something or somebody unpleasant; "I cannot bear his constant criticism"; "The new secretary had to endure a lot of unprofessional remarks"; "he learned to tolerate the heat"; "She stuck out two years in a miserable marriage" [syn: digest, endure, stick out, stomach, bear, stand, tolerate, support, brook, abide, suffer, put up]
2: recognize and respect (rights and beliefs of others); "We must tolerate the religions of others"
3: have a tolerance for a poison or strong drug or pathogen or environmental condition; "The patient does not tolerate the anti-inflammatory drugs we gave him"
4: allow the presence of or allow (an activity) without opposing or prohibiting; "We don't allow dogs here"; "Children are not permitted beyond this point"; "We cannot tolerate smoking in the hospital" [syn: allow, permit, tolerate]

Merriam Webster's

transitive verb (-ated; -ating) Etymology: Latin toleratus, past participle of tolerare to endure, put up with; akin to Old English tholian to bear, Latin tollere to lift up, latus carried (suppletive past participle of ferre), Greek tl?nai to bear Date: 1524 1. to endure or resist the action of (as a drug or food) without serious side effects or discomfort ; exhibit physiological tolerance for 2. a. to allow to be or to be done without prohibition, hindrance, or contradiction b. to put up with <learn to tolerate one another> Synonyms: see bear • tolerative adjective • tolerator noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. 1 allow the existence or occurrence of without authoritative interference. 2 leave unmolested. 3 endure or permit, esp. with forbearance. 4 sustain or endure (suffering etc.). 5 be capable of continued subjection to (a drug, radiation, etc.) without harm. 6 find or treat as endurable. Derivatives: tolerator n. Etymology: L tolerare tolerat- endure

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Tolerate Tol"er*ate, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tolerated; p. pr. & vb. n. Tolerating.] [L. toleratus, p. p. of tolerare, fr. the same root as tollere to lift up, tuli, used as perfect of ferre to bear, latus (for tlatus), used as p. p. of ferre to bear, and E. thole. See Thole, and cf. Atlas, Collation, Delay, Elate, Extol, Legislate, Oblate, Prelate, Relate, Superlative, Talent, Toll to take away, Translate.] To suffer to be, or to be done, without prohibition or hindrance; to allow or permit negatively, by not preventing; not to restrain; to put up with; as, to tolerate doubtful practices. Crying should not be tolerated in children. --Locke. We tolerate them because property and liberty, to a degree, require that toleration. --Burke. Syn: See Permit.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(tolerates, tolerating, tolerated) 1. If you tolerate a situation or person, you accept them although you do not particularly like them. She can no longer tolerate the position that she's in... = put up with VERB: V n 2. If you can tolerate something unpleasant or painful, you are able to bear it. The ability to tolerate pain varies from person to person. = bear VERB: V n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. 1. Permit (as something unpleasant), allow, admit, indulge, receive. 2. Suffer, endure, abide, brook, put up with, bear with, take patiently or easily.

Moby Thesaurus

abide, abide with, accept, admit, allow, be big, be content with, be easy with, bear, bear with, bide, blink at, brave, brook, concede, condone, connive at, consent to, countenance, disregard, endure, go, hang in, hang in there, hang tough, have, hear of, ignore, indulge, judge not, lean over backwards, listen to reason, live with, lump, lump it, not write off, overlook, permit, persevere, pocket, put up with, sanction, see both sides, spare the rod, stand, stand for, stick, stomach, submit to, suffer, support, suspend judgment, sustain, swallow, take, take up with, undergo, view with indulgence, weather, wink at