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CONTINUANCE
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of continuing an activity without interruption
Synonyms:
continuance; continuation
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("continuance" is a kind of...):
activity (any specific behavior)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "continuance"):
lengthening; perpetuation; prolongation; protraction (the act of prolonging something)
repeating; repetition (the act of doing or performing again)
perseverance; perseveration; persistence (the act of persisting or persevering; continuing or repeating behavior)
abidance (the act of abiding (enduring without yielding))
prosecution; pursuance (the continuance of something begun with a view to its completion)
survival (something that survives)
Antonym:
discontinuance (the act of discontinuing or breaking off; an interruption (temporary or permanent))
Derivation:
continue (continue a certain state, condition, or activity)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The property of enduring or continuing in time
Synonyms:
continuance; duration
Classified under:
Nouns denoting time and temporal relations
Hypernyms ("continuance" is a kind of...):
time (the continuum of experience in which events pass from the future through the present to the past)
Derivation:
continuant (of speech sounds produced by forcing air through a constricted passage (as 'f', 's', 'z', or 'th' in both 'thin' and 'then'))
Sense 3
Meaning:
The period of time during which something continues
Synonyms:
continuance; duration
Classified under:
Nouns denoting time and temporal relations
Hypernyms ("continuance" is a kind of...):
period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "continuance"):
clocking (the time taken to traverse a measured course)
longueur (a period of dullness or boredom (especially in a work of literature or performing art))
residence time (the period of time spent in a particular place)
span (the complete duration of something)
stint; stretch (an unbroken period of time during which you do something)
time scale (an arrangement of events used as a measure of duration)
note value; time value; value ((music) the relative duration of a musical note)
rule (the duration of a monarch's or government's power)
Derivation:
continue (exist over a prolonged period of time)
Context examples:
She tried to recollect some instance of goodness, some distinguished trait of integrity or benevolence, that might rescue him from the attacks of Mr. Darcy; or at least, by the predominance of virtue, atone for those casual errors under which she would endeavour to class what Mr. Darcy had described as the idleness and vice of many years' continuance.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
That the manner in which she treated the dreadful crime committed by her brother and my sister (with whom lay the greater seduction I pretended not to say), but the manner in which she spoke of the crime itself, giving it every reproach but the right; considering its ill consequences only as they were to be braved or overborne by a defiance of decency and impudence in wrong; and last of all, and above all, recommending to us a compliance, a compromise, an acquiescence in the continuance of the sin, on the chance of a marriage which, thinking as I now thought of her brother, should rather be prevented than sought; all this together most grievously convinced me that I had never understood her before, and that, as far as related to mind, it had been the creature of my own imagination, not Miss Crawford, that I had been too apt to dwell on for many months past.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
A continuance in a place where everything reminded her of former delight, was exactly what suited her mind.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
The sum of his discourse was to this effect: That about forty years ago, certain persons went up to Laputa, either upon business or diversion, and, after five months continuance, came back with a very little smattering in mathematics, but full of volatile spirits acquired in that airy region: that these persons, upon their return, began to dislike the management of every thing below, and fell into schemes of putting all arts, sciences, languages, and mechanics, upon a new foot.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Henry and Eleanor, perceiving nothing in her situation likely to engage their father's particular respect, had seen with astonishment the suddenness, continuance, and extent of his attention; and though latterly, from some hints which had accompanied an almost positive command to his son of doing everything in his power to attach her, Henry was convinced of his father's believing it to be an advantageous connection, it was not till the late explanation at Northanger that they had the smallest idea of the false calculations which had hurried him on.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
The stupidity with which he was favoured by nature must guard his courtship from any charm that could make a woman wish for its continuance; and Miss Lucas, who accepted him solely from the pure and disinterested desire of an establishment, cared not how soon that establishment were gained.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Everything was now in a regular train: theatre, actors, actresses, and dresses, were all getting forward; but though no other great impediments arose, Fanny found, before many days were past, that it was not all uninterrupted enjoyment to the party themselves, and that she had not to witness the continuance of such unanimity and delight as had been almost too much for her at first.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
But while she smiled at a graciousness so misapplied, she could not reflect on the mean-spirited folly from which it sprung, nor observe the studied attentions with which the Miss Steeles courted its continuance, without thoroughly despising them all four.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
If a struldbrug happen to marry one of his own kind, the marriage is dissolved of course, by the courtesy of the kingdom, as soon as the younger of the two comes to be fourscore; for the law thinks it a reasonable indulgence, that those who are condemned, without any fault of their own, to a perpetual continuance in the world, should not have their misery doubled by the load of a wife.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
After what had passed to wound and alienate the two families, the continuance of the Bertrams and Grants in such close neighbourhood would have been most distressing; but the absence of the latter, for some months purposely lengthened, ended very fortunately in the necessity, or at least the practicability, of a permanent removal.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
