Endure, v. t.
1. To remain firm under; to sustain; to undergo; to support without breaking or yielding; as, metals endure a certain degree of heat without melting; to endure wind and weather. Both were of shining steel, and wrought so pure, As might the strokes of two such arms endure. Dryden.
2. To bear with patience; to suffer without opposition or without sinking under the pressure or affliction; to bear up under; to put up with; to tolerate. I will no longer endure it. Shak. Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake. 2 Tim. ii. 10. How can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people Esther viii. 6.
3. To harden; to toughen; to make hardy. [Obs.] Manly limbs endured with little ease. Spenser.
Syn. -- To last; remain; continue; abide; brook; submit to; suffer.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Endure, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Endured; p. pr. & vb. n. Enduring.]
1. To continue in the same state without perishing; to last; to remain. Their verdure still endure. Shak. He shall hold it [his house] fast, but it shall not endure. Job viii. 15.
2. To remain firm, as under trial or suffering; to suffer patiently or without yielding; to bear up under adversity; to hold out. Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong in the days that I shall deal with thee Ezek. xxii. 14.
Shades of meaning
Bear is the most general of these words; it is metaphorically to hold up or keep up a burden of care, pain, grief, annoyance, or the like, without sinking, lamenting, or repining. Allow and permit involve large concession of the will; put up with and tolerate imply decided aversion and reluctant withholding of opposition or interference; whispering is allowed by the school-teacher who does not forbid nor censure it; one puts up with the presence of a disagreeable visitor; a state tolerates a religion which it would be glad to suppress. To endure is to bear with strain and resistance, but with conscious power; endure conveys a fuller suggestion of contest and conquest than bear. One may choose to endure the pain of a surgical operation rather than take anesthetics; he permits the thing to come which he must brace himself to endure when it comes. To afford is to be equal to a pecuniary demand, i. e., to be able to bear it. To brook is quietly to put up with provocation or insult. Abide combines the senses of await and endure; as, I will abide the result. Compare abide; support.