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Webster 1913 Edition


Durance

Dur′ance

,
Noun.
[OF.
durance
duration, fr. L.
durans
,
-antis
, p. pr.
durare
to endure, last. See
Dure
, and cf.
Durant
.]
1.
Continuance; duration. See
Endurance
.
[Archaic]
Of how short
durance
was this new-made state!
Dryden.
2.
Imprisonment; restraint of the person; custody by a jailer; duress. Shak.
Durance vile.”
Burns.
In
durance
, exile, Bedlam or the mint.
Pope.
3.
(a)
A stout cloth stuff, formerly made in imitation of buff leather and used for garments; a sort of tammy or everlasting.
(b)
In modern manufacture, a worsted of one color used for window blinds and similar purposes.

Webster 1828 Edition


Durance

DURANCE

,
Noun.
[L.]
1.
Imprisonment; restraint of the person; custody of the jailer.
2.
Continuance; duration. [See Endurance.]

Definition 2024


durance

durance

See also: Durance

English

Noun

durance (countable and uncountable, plural durances)

  1. (obsolete) Duration.
  2. (obsolete) Endurance.
    • XIX century, Gerard Manley Hopkins, No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief
      O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall
      Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap
      May who ne’er hung there. Nor does long our small
      Durance deal with that steep or deep. Here! creep, [...]
  3. (archaic) Imprisonment; forced confinement.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.5:
      What bootes it him from death to be unbownd, / To be captived in endlesse duraunce / Of sorrow and despeyre without aleggeaunce!
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973, p. 373:
      the parson concurred, saying, the Lord forbid he should be instrumental in committing an innocent person to durance.

Translations

Anagrams


Old French

Etymology

durer + -ance.

Noun

durance f (oblique plural durances, nominative singular durance, nominative plural durances)

  1. duration (length with respect to time)
    • circa 1289, Jacques d'Amiens, L'art d'amours
      Si prent on tost tele acointance
      Qui puet avoir peu de durance