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SUFFERING
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Feelings of mental or physical pain
Synonyms:
hurt; suffering
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("suffering" is a kind of...):
pain; painfulness (emotional distress; a fundamental feeling that people try to avoid)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "suffering"):
agony; torment; torture (intense feelings of suffering; acute mental or physical pain)
throes (violent pangs of suffering)
discomfort; irritation; soreness (an uncomfortable feeling of mental painfulness or distress)
Derivation:
suffer (feel pain or be in pain)
suffer (feel physical pain)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Psychological suffering
Example:
the death of his wife caused him great distress
Synonyms:
distress; hurt; suffering
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("suffering" is a kind of...):
pain; painfulness (emotional distress; a fundamental feeling that people try to avoid)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "suffering"):
anguish; torment; torture (extreme mental distress)
self-torment; self-torture (self-imposed distress)
tsoris ((Yiddish) trouble and suffering)
wound (a figurative injury (to your feelings or pride))
Derivation:
suffer (experience (emotional) pain)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A state of acute pain
Synonyms:
agony; excruciation; suffering
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("suffering" is a kind of...):
hurting; pain (a symptom of some physical hurt or disorder)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "suffering"):
throe (severe spasm of pain)
Passion; Passion of Christ (the suffering of Jesus at the Crucifixion)
Derivation:
suffer (feel pain or be in pain)
suffer (feel physical pain)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Misery resulting from affliction
Synonyms:
suffering; woe
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("suffering" is a kind of...):
miserableness; misery; wretchedness (a state of ill-being due to affliction or misfortune)
Derivation:
suffer (experience (emotional) pain)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Very unhappy; full of misery
Example:
wretched prisoners huddled in stinking cages
Synonyms:
miserable; suffering; wretched
Classified under:
Similar:
unhappy (experiencing or marked by or causing sadness or sorrow or discontent)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Troubled by pain or loss
Example:
suffering refugees
Classified under:
Similar:
troubled (characterized by or indicative of distress or affliction or danger or need)
III. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb suffer
Context examples:
Not only were we hungry, but we were now suffering from thirst.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Go up to your own room; think over all I have said, and, Jane, cast a glance on my sufferings—think of me.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
“We hope these results will help test the effectiveness of new therapies for this form of MS and reduce the suffering patients experience.”
(Smoldering spots in the brain may signal severe multiple sclerosis, National Institutes of Health)
Elizabeth was, for a short time, suffering a good deal.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
We have learned the truth in sorrow and in suffering.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Her tone expressed her entire indifference; she addressed me in English, and the voice struck me as one that I had heard during my sufferings.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Treatment given to relieve the symptoms and reduce the suffering caused by cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
(Palliative therapy, NCI Dictionary)
Any personal suffering seemed to me to be better than to bring public shame upon a family which has held an untarnished record through so many centuries.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Relief of symptoms and suffering caused by cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
(Palliation, NCI Dictionary)
Peggotty calling his attention to my sufferings, Mr. Barkis gave me a little more room at once, and got away by degrees.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
