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SUFFER
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I. (verb)
Verb forms
Present simple: I / you / we / they suffer ... he / she / it suffers
Past simple: suffered
Past participle: suffered
-ing form: suffering
Sense 1
Meaning:
Feel pain or be in pain
Synonyms:
hurt; suffer
Classified under:
Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care
Hypernyms (to "suffer" is one way to...):
be (have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun))
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "suffer"):
have (suffer from; be ill with)
choke; gag; strangle; suffocate (struggle for breath; have insufficient oxygen intake)
ail (be ill or unwell)
famish; hunger; starve (be hungry; go without food)
Sentence frames:
Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Sentence example:
Sam and Sue suffer
Antonym:
be well (be healthy; feel good)
Derivation:
sufferance (patient endurance especially of pain or distress)
sufferer (a person suffering from an illness)
suffering (feelings of mental or physical pain)
suffering (a state of acute pain)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Undergo (as of injuries and illnesses)
Example:
He got his arm broken in the scuffle
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care
Hypernyms (to "suffer" is one way to...):
experience; get; have; receive (go through (mental or physical states or experiences))
Verb group:
have (suffer from; be ill with)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "suffer"):
break down; collapse (collapse due to fatigue, an illness, or a sudden attack)
cramp (suffer from sudden painful contraction of a muscle)
break up; collapse; crack; crack up; crock up (suffer a nervous breakdown)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Derivation:
sufferer (a person suffering from an illness)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Feel unwell or uncomfortable
Example:
She is suffering from the hot weather
Classified under:
Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care
Hypernyms (to "suffer" is one way to...):
be (have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun))
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "suffer"):
freeze (be cold)
swelter (be uncomfortably hot)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP
Sense 4
Meaning:
Get worse
Example:
His grades suffered
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "suffer" is one way to...):
Verb group:
lose; suffer (be set at a disadvantage)
Sentence frames:
Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP
Sense 5
Meaning:
Be set at a disadvantage
Example:
The painting loses something in this light
Synonyms:
lose; suffer
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "suffer" is one way to...):
decline; worsen (grow worse)
Verb group:
suffer (get worse)
Sentence frames:
Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Something is ----ing PP
Sense 6
Meaning:
Put up with something or somebody unpleasant
Example:
She stuck out two years in a miserable marriage
Synonyms:
abide; bear; brook; digest; endure; put up; stand; stick out; stomach; suffer; support; tolerate
Classified under:
Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting
Hypernyms (to "suffer" is one way to...):
allow; countenance; let; permit (consent to, give permission)
Verb group:
suffer (experience (emotional) pain)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "suffer"):
pay (bear (a cost or penalty), in recompense for some action)
sit out (endure to the end)
take a joke (listen to a joke at one's own expense)
take lying down (suffer without protest; suffer or endure passively)
bear up (endure cheerfully)
hold still for; stand for (tolerate or bear)
accept; live with; swallow (tolerate or accommodate oneself to)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Sentence example:
Sam cannot suffer Sue
Derivation:
sufferance (a disposition to tolerate or accept people or situations)
Sense 7
Meaning:
Experience (emotional) pain
Example:
Every time her husband gets drunk, she suffers
Classified under:
Hypernyms (to "suffer" is one way to...):
experience; feel (undergo an emotional sensation or be in a particular state of mind)
Verb group:
abide; bear; brook; digest; endure; put up; stand; stick out; stomach; suffer; support; tolerate (put up with something or somebody unpleasant)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "suffer"):
agonise; agonize (suffer agony or anguish)
anguish (suffer great pains or distress)
lose (suffer the loss of a person through death or removal)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s PP
Sentence example:
Sam and Sue suffer
Derivation:
sufferer (one who suffers for the sake of principle)
suffering (psychological suffering)
suffering (misery resulting from affliction)
Sense 8
Meaning:
Undergo or be subjected to
Example:
Many saints suffered martyrdom
Synonyms:
endure; suffer
Classified under:
Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling
Hypernyms (to "suffer" is one way to...):
experience; go through; see (undergo or live through a difficult experience)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "suffer"):
tolerate (have a tolerance for a poison or strong drug or pathogen or environmental condition)
die (suffer or face the pain of death)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Antonym:
enjoy (have for one's benefit)
Sense 9
Meaning:
Undergo or suffer
Example:
suffer a terrible fate
Synonyms:
meet; suffer
Classified under:
Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling
Hypernyms (to "suffer" is one way to...):
experience; go through; see (undergo or live through a difficult experience)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Sense 10
Meaning:
Feel physical pain
Example:
Were you hurting after the accident?
Synonyms:
ache; hurt; suffer
Classified under:
Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling
Hypernyms (to "suffer" is one way to...):
comprehend; perceive (to become aware of through the senses)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "suffer"):
catch; get (suffer from the receipt of)
twinge (feel a sudden sharp, local pain)
prick; sting; twinge (cause a stinging pain)
kill (be the source of great pain for)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s
Sentence example:
Sam and Sue suffer
Derivation:
sufferer (a person suffering from an illness)
suffering (feelings of mental or physical pain)
suffering (a state of acute pain)
Sense 11
Meaning:
Be given to
Example:
She suffers from a tendency to talk too much
Classified under:
Verbs of being, having, spatial relations
Hypernyms (to "suffer" is one way to...):
be given; incline; lean; run; tend (have a tendency or disposition to do or be something; be inclined)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s PP
Context examples:
Relief of symptoms and suffering caused by cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
(Palliation, NCI Dictionary)
The anatomic site at which damage or harm was suffered.
(Injury Site, NCI Thesaurus)
People with AIDS are also more likely to suffer complications of common illnesses such as the flu.
(HIV/AIDS and Infections, NIH)
Yes, it makes me impatient to hear you: but, however, you have suffered, and are likely to suffer enough for not taking my advice; so I'll say no more.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering, nothing but suffering, which was by no means the case at Lyme.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
In fact, you are both suffering from the disease you think you find in me.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
She has been suffering since yesterday from brain symptoms of great severity.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
If you have suffered for any reason, you have a solid new reason for hope.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
I never suffer a word to pass that may look like reflection, or possibly give the least offence, even to those who are most ready to take it.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Most injuries affected individuals between 13 and 29, but those younger than 13 were significantly more likely to suffer the most long-term complications.
(Mobile phone could cause physical pain, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
