English edit

Pronunciation edit

  • (file)

Prepositional phrase edit

on sufferance

  1. (idiomatic) Unwillingly agreed to or barely tolerated.
    I wasn't whole-hearted about the decision but couldn't think of a better one, so went along with it on sufferance for the time being.
    • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate [], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, [], →OCLC:
      In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass. [] Strangers might enter the room, but they were made to feel that they were there on sufferance: they were received with distance and suspicion.

Translations edit