Definition of "dree"

dree¹

/dɹiː/

verb
third-person singular simple present drees, present participle dreeing, simple past and past participle dreed
1. (transitive) To bear or endure (something); to put up with, to suffer, to undergo.
  Quotations
  Peace to the souls of the graveless dead! / 'Twas an awful doom to dree; / But fearful and wondrous are thy works, / O God! in the boundless sea!
  1826, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, The Literary Gazette, 16th September: The Frozen Ship
  And redoubled pine for its dwellers I dree.
  1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume VIII, [London]: […] Burton Club […]
2. (intransitive) To endure; to brook; also, to be able to do or continue.

dree²

/dɹiː/

noun
plural drees
1. (chiefly Northumbria, Scotland, archaic) Grief; suffering; trouble.
  Quotations
  Life is blood, shed and offered. / The eagle’s eye can face this dree. / To beasts of chase the lie is proffered: / Timor Mortis Conturbat Me.
  1958, T[erence] H[anbury] White, chapter VIII, in The Once and Future King, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, book I (The Sword in the Stone)

dree³

/dɹiː/

adverb
comparative more dree, superlative most dree
1. (Northeast Midlands, Northern England)
  1. Of the doing of a task: with concentration; laboriously.
  2. Chiefly of the falling of rain: without pause or stop; continuously, incessantly.
2. (Lancashire, Scotland) Slowly, tediously.

dree⁴

/dɹiː/

adjective
comparative dreer, superlative dreest
1. Alternative form of dreich
  Quotations
  To be sure, t' winter's been a dree season, and thou'rt, maybe, in the right on't to make a late start.
  1863, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, “The Engagement”, in Sylvia’s Lovers. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], page 40
  But he's lying i' such dree poverty,—and niver a friend to go near him,—niver a person to speak a kind word t' him.
  1863, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, “Wedding Raiment”, in Sylvia’s Lovers. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], page 278
  So, after two hours' running downhill, we came out in the level valley at Glashütte. It was raining now, a thick dree rain.
  a. 1931 (date written), D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “A Hay Hut among the Mountains”, in Warren Roberts, Harry T. Moore, editors, Phoenix II: Uncollected, Unpublished, and Other Prose Works by D. H. Lawrence […], Viking Compass edition, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, published 1970, part I (Stories and Sketches), page 43