Suffer

To feel pain.
The Basic Dictionary-Type Definition of Pain = physical suffering, acute mental or emotional suffering.
A Better Definition of Pain, found in The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran, under "Pain":

"...Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;
And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.
Much of your pain is self-chosen.
It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquillity:
For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,
And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears."

Suf"fer (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Suffered (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Suffering.] [OE. suffren, soffren, OF. sufrir, sofrir, F. souffrir, (assumed) LL. sofferire, for L. sufferre; sub under + ferre to bear, akin to E. bear. See Bear to support.]

1.

To feel, or endure, with pain, annoyance, etc.; to submit to with distress or grief; to undergo; as, to suffer pain of body, or grief of mind.

2.

To endure or undergo without sinking; to support; to sustain; to bear up under.

Our spirit and strength entire, Strongly to suffer and support our pains. Milton.

3.

To undergo; to be affected by; to sustain; to experience; as, most substances suffer a change when long exposed to air and moisture; to suffer loss or damage.

If your more ponderous and settled project May suffer alteration. Shak.

4.

To allow; to permit; not to forbid or hinder; to tolerate.

Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. Lev. xix. 17.

I suffer them to enter and possess. Milton.

Syn. -- To permit; bear; endure; support; sustain; allow; admit; tolerate. See Permit.

 

© Webster 1913.

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Suf"fer, v. i.

1.

To feel or undergo pain of body or mind; to bear what is inconvenient; as, we suffer from pain, sickness, or sorrow; we suffer with anxiety.

O well for him whose will is strong! He suffers, but he will not suffer long. Tennyson.

2.

To undergo punishment; specifically, to undergo the penalty of death.

The father was first condemned to suffer upon a day appointed, and the son afterwards the day following. Clarendon.

3.

To be injured; to sustain loss or damage.

Public business suffers by private infirmities. Sir W. Temple.

 

© Webster 1913.