Definition of: endure

(in·dr′, -dyr′) v. ·dured, ·dur·ing v.t.
1. To bear or undergo, as pain, grief, or injury, especially without yielding; withstand; suffer.
2. To tolerate; put up with.
—v.i.
3. To last; continue to be.
4. To suffer without yielding; hold out. [<OF endurer <L indurare <in- in + durare harden <durus hard] Synonyms: abide, afford, allow, bear, brook, permit, suffer, support, sustain, tolerate, undergo. Bear is the most general of these words; it is metaphorically to hold up or keep up a burden of care, pain, grief, annoyance, or the like, without sinking, lamenting, or repining. Allow and permit involve large concession of the will; whispering is allowed by the schoolteacher who does not forbid nor censure it; a state tolerates a religion which it would be glad to suppress. To endure is to bear with strain and resistance, but with conscious power; endure conveys a fuller suggestion of contest and conquest than bear. One may choose to endure the pain of a surgical operation rather than take anesthetics; he permits the thing to come which he must brace himself to endure when it comes. To afford is to be equal to a pecuniary demand, that is, to be able to bear it. Abide combines the senses of await and endure; as, I will abide the result. Compare ABIDE, LIVE, PERSEVERE, PERSIST, STAND, SUPPORT. Antonyms: break, despair, droop, fail, faint, fall, falter, sink, succumb, surrender, yield.