v., -fered, -fer·ing, -fers. v.intr.
- To feel pain or distress; sustain loss, injury, harm, or punishment.
- To tolerate or endure evil, injury, pain, or death. See synonyms at bear1.
- To appear at a disadvantage: "He suffers by comparison with his greater contemporary" (Albert C. Baugh).
- To undergo or sustain (something painful, injurious, or unpleasant): "Ordinary men have always had to suffer the history their leaders were making" (Herbert J. Muller).
- To experience; undergo: suffer a change in staff.
- To endure or bear; stand: would not suffer fools.
- To permit; allow: "They were not suffered to aspire to so exalted a position as that of streetcar conductor" (Edmund S. Morgan).
[Middle English suffren, from Old French sufrir, from Vulgar Latin *sufferīre, from Latin sufferre : sub-, sub- + ferre, to carry.]
sufferer suf'fer·er n.sufferingly suf'fer·ing·ly adv.
USAGE NOTE In general usage the preferred preposition after suffer is from, rather than with, in constructions such as He suffered from hypertension. Ninety-four percent of the Usage Panel found suffered with unacceptable in the preceding example. In medical usage suffer with is sometimes employed with reference to the pain or discomfort caused by a condition, while suffer from is used more broadly in reference to a condition, such as anemia, that is detrimental but not necessarily painful.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
