[f. SUFFER v. + -ING2.]
† 1. That endures patiently, LONG-SUFFERING; inured to suffering; submissive. Obs.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, vii. 12. God rightwis iuge, stalworth and soffrand.
c. 1400. trans. Secr. Secr., Gov. Lordsh., 108. Þat þou ert … lastyng, wys, and sufferand.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, VII. xx. 244. He is curteis and mylde and the moost sufferynge man that euer I mette with al.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., II. i. 130. Such suffering Soules That welcome wrongs.
1605. B. Jonson, Sejanus, IV. Whome hee (vpon our low, and suffering neckes) Hath rays’d, from excrement, to side the Gods.
1679. W. Penn, in Wks. I. Penington (1784), I. p. x. By nature he was suffering to a degree of letting his mercy to others almost wound his own soul.
1694. J. Kettlewell, Comp. for Persecuted, Wks. 1718, II. 295. O Almighty … God!… in these Suffering Times, give me a Suffering Spirit.
† 2. Passive. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VI. xii. (Bodl. MS.). In þe male beþ vertues formale and schaping … and in þe female materialle suffring and passiue.
1792. Cowper, Lett. to Mrs. King, 26 Jan. The infallible Judge of human conduct may possibly behold with more complacency a suffering than an active courage.
3. Of persons, their character, condition, etc.: That suffers, or is characterized by the suffering of, pain, affliction or distress.
1597. Shaks., Lover’s Compl., 178. Gentle maid Haue of my suffering youth some feeling pitty.
a. 1643. Ld. Falkland, etc., Infallibility (1646), 102. It is well knowne that … where both religions are professed … none be on the suffering hand but we, none persecutes but they.
1659. Gentl. Calling, Pref. § 3. The Martyrologie even of these suffering times.
1687. Dryden, Hind & P., III. 138. You have your day, or you are much bely’d, But I am always on the suff’ring side.
1705. Stanhope, Paraphr., I. 11. We can feed and cloath hungry and naked Christ in his suffering Members.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1823), IV. 401. The Christian religion … is a suffering religion.
1790. Burke, Rev. France, 123. Deserters from principle,… they never see any good in suffering virtue.
1814. Jane Austen, Mansf. Park, I. xviii. 357. Such nature and feeling in it as must … make it a very suffering exhibition to herself.
1820. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., I. 630. Many … live among their suffering fellow-men As if none felt.
1828. Lytton, Pelham, II. xiii. Mr. Chitterling Crabtree … subscribed to the aid of the suffering friends of freedom.
1885. Athenæum, 18 July, 79/3. Her [Mrs. Piatt’s] verse is characterized by great earnestness and keen sympathy with suffering man and woman.
b. In Puritan use, with reference to hardships endured for the sake of religion, esp. in suffering saint.
1661. J. Perrot (title), To the Suffering Seed of Royalty, Wheresoever Tribulated upon the Face of the whole Earth.
1664. Butler, Hud., II. II. 406. That Sinners may supply the place Of suff’ring Saints is a plain Case.
1667. Epil. Dryden’s Secret Love. A whipt Fanatick who does not recant Is by his Brethren call’d a suffring Saint.
[1682. Claverhouse, Lett. to Queensberry, 1 March. I would desire leave to draw out of the two regiments a hundred of the best musketeers had served abroad; and I should take horses here, amongst the suffering sinners.]
1896. Mrs. Caffyn, Quaker Grandmother, 317. Harry was as yet scarcely in fit condition for any suffering-saint phase to be foisted upon him.
c. [After F. souffrant.] Ill, indisposed. rare.
1885. ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ Valerie’s Fate, iii. My poor friend is very suffering and anxious to press on to Mentone.
† 4. transf. Becoming impaired by use. Obs.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, I. i. 77. The suffering ploughshare, or the flint may weare.
5. Comb., as suffering-minded adj.
1598. Chapman, Iliad, V. 276. Most suffering-minded Tydeus sonne.
