Definition of "sufferance"
sufferance
noun
countable and uncountable, plural sufferances
(archaic) Endurance, especially patiently, of pain or adversity.
Quotations
At length when as he ſaw her haſtie heat / Abate, and panting breath begin to fayle, / He through long ſufferãce growing now more great, / Roſe in his strength, and gan her freſh aſſayle, [...]
1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, stanza 16, page 84
I indulged in this meditation for a moment, and then again addressed the mourner, who stood leaning against the bed with that expression of resigned despair, of complete misery, and a patient sufferance of it, which is far more touching than any of the insane ravings or wild gesticulation of untamed sorrow.
1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter IV, in The Last Man. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], page 115
In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for the select circle—a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening for a pipe and a cheerful glass. [...] Strangers might enter the room, but they were made to feel that they were there on sufferance; they were received with distance and suspicion.
1892, Walter Besant, “The Select Circle”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], page 46
Acquiescence or tacit compliance with some circumstance, behavior, or instruction.
Quotations
[M]oſt wretched man, / That to affections does the bridle lend; / In their beginning they are weake and wan, / But ſoone through ſuff'rance growe to fearefull end; [...]
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 34, page 241
Somewhiles by sufferance, and somewhiles by special leave and favour, they erected to themselves oratories.
1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, (please specify the page)
(archaic) Suffering; pain, misery.
Quotations
Fortune, do diuorce / It from the bearer, 'tis a ſufferance, panging / As ſoule and bodies ſeuering.
1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene iii], page 214, column 2
(obsolete) Loss; damage; injury.
Quotations
The deſperate Tempeſt has ſo bang'd the Turke, / That their deſignement halts; Another ſhippe of Venice hath ſeene / A greeuous wracke and ſufferance / On moſt part of the Fleete.
c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, [Act II, scene i], page 21