Suffer

//ˈsʌfɚ// verb

verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To undergo hardship. intransitive

    "Many artists suffer before becoming famous."

  2. 2
    be in pain wordnet
  3. 3
    To feel pain. intransitive

    "At least he didn't suffer when he died in the car crash."

  4. 4
    undergo (as of injuries and illnesses) wordnet
  5. 5
    To become worse. intransitive

    "If you keep partying like this, your school-work will suffer."

Show 8 more definitions
  1. 6
    get worse in quality wordnet
  2. 7
    To endure, undergo. transitive

    "I've been suffering your insults for years."

  3. 8
    be set at a disadvantage wordnet
  4. 9
    To allow. archaic, transitive

    "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to liue."

  5. 10
    put up with something or somebody unpleasant wordnet
  6. 11
    undergo or be subjected to wordnet
  7. 12
    undergo or suffer wordnet
  8. 13
    be given to wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
bearabideacheagonizebearbrook

Example

More examples

"Girls are more likely than boys to be malnourished, suffer poverty, face violence and be refused an education, according to a new report."

Etymology

From Middle English suffren, from Anglo-Norman suffrir, from Latin sufferre (“to offer, hold up, bear, suffer”), from sub- (“up, under”) + ferō (“I carry”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear, carry”). Displaced native Old English þrōwian.

Related phrases

gladly suffer foolssuffer by comparisonsuffer fools gladlysuffer fromsuffer in silencethe strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.