Noun

(en-noun)

(uncountable) The state of adverse conditions; state of misfortune or calamity.

* {{quote-book, year=1858

, year_published=2008 , publisher=Read Books , author= , title= , section=Chapter III citation , isbn=9781443734035 , page=55 , passage=The doctor loved the squire, loved him as his oldest friend; but he loved him ten times better as being in adversity than he could ever have done had things gone well at Greshansbury in his time.}}

* {{quote-book, year=2007

, publisher=PublishAmerica , author=Earl Crouch , title=Do You Know? , chapter=When Adversity Strikes citation , isbn=9781424173914 , page=60 , passage=God approves all adversity'. Not all '''adversity''' that the Christian encounters is due to sins in the Christian's life. Not all ' adversity is the fault of the Christian.}}

* {{quote-book, year=1998

, publisher=Naval Institute Press , editor=Karel Montor , author=Karel Montor, et al , title=Naval Leadership: Voices of Experience , edition=2nd edition , chapter=Directing and Coordinating Operations , section=Efficient and Professional Conduct citation , isbn=9781557505965 , page=278 , passage=These are the people who will overcome the adversity , chaos, and destruction of combat and defeat the enemy in war.}}

(countable) An event that is adverse; calamity.

* {{quote-magazine, year=1859

, author= , coauthors= , title=The Great Earl of Cork , date=September 1859 , volume=LIV , issue= , page=326 , magazine=The Dublin University Magazine: A Literary and Political Journal , publisher=Alex Thom & Sons citation , passage=Having “secret notice,” the writer of “True Remembrances” declares of the above complains, he retired into Munster, intending to proceed to England, to justify himself; but was detained there for want of money by the breaking out of rebellion. This adversity befell him in the autumn of 1598. }}

* {{quote-book, year=1977

, year_published=1979 , publisher=Routledge , author=Genevieve Burton , title=Interpersonal Relations: A Guide for Nurses , edition=Fourth edition , chapter=Family Adversity and the Nurse citation , isbn=9780422769907 , page=101 , passage=Every family is struck by adversity' at one time or another. No matter how mature the patients are, regardless of the care an advantages they give their children, despite a desirable interactive love between family members, ' adversity will attack any family}}

* {{quote-book, year=2006

, year_published=2007 , publisher=Plume , author=Elizabeth Wissner-Gross , title=What Colleges Don't Tell You (and Other Parents Don't Want You to Know: 272 Secrets for Getting Your Kid Into the Top Schools , chapter=Getting Your Kid off the Waiting List and into the School of His or Her Dreams citation , isbn=9780452288546 , page=272 , passage=Make sure that your child’s adversity' is ''really'' an '''adversity'''. Not having parents who can buy a new car upon your son’s sixteenth birthday is not an '''adversity'''. Being the only girl on the block who doesn’t own a designed handbag is not an ' adversity }}

Noun

(lb) Endurance, especially patiently, of pain or adversity.

*(Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)

*:but hasty heat tempering with sufferance wise

*1826 , (Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley), The Last Man , Ch.4,

*: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.

Acquiescence or tacit compliance with some circumstance, behavior, or instruction.

*(Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)

*:In their beginning they are weak and wan, / But soon, through sufferance , grow to fearful end.

*(Richard Hooker) (1554-1600)

*:Somewhiles by sufferance , and somewhiles by special leave and favour, they erected to themselves oratories.

*1910 , (Arthur Quiller-Couch), Lady Good-for-Nothing , Ch.20,

*:When his talk trespasses beyond sufferance , I chastise him.

(lb) Suffering; pain, misery.

*, II.37:

*:The sufferances which simply touch us in minde, doe much lesse afflict me, then most men.

*1612 , (William Shakespeare), King Henry VIII , act 2, sc.3,

*:'Tis a sufferance panging / As soul and body's severing.

*1819 , (Lord Byron), , II.147:

*:the streak / Of sufferance yet upon his forehead lay, / Where the blue veins looked shadowy, shrunk, and weak.

(lb) Loss; damage; injury.

*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

*:a grievoussufferance on most part of their fleet

A permission granted by the customs authorities for the shipment of goods.