Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Confinement or restraint by force; imprisonment: "There should be a durance vile for justices who use an argument as weak as the one the majority used” ( George F. Will).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Duration; continuance; endurance.
- n. Imprisonment; restraint of the person; involuntary confinement of any kind.
- n. Any material supposed to be of remarkable durability, as buff-leather; especially, a strong cloth made to replace and partly to imitate buff-leather; a variety of tammy. Sometimes written durant, and also called ererlasting.
- n. A kind of apple.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Continuance; duration. See endurance.
- n. Imprisonment; restraint of the person; custody by a jailer; duress.
Shak . - n. A stout cloth stuff, formerly made in imitation of buff leather and used for garments; a sort of tammy or everlasting.
- n. In modern manufacture, a worsted of one color used for window blinds and similar purposes.
WordNet 3.0
- n. imprisonment (especially for a long time)
Etymologies
- Middle English duraunce, duration, from Old French durance, from durer, to last, from Latin dūrāre; see deuə- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“As Murk languishes in durance vile, someone decides to change the game.”
“This means an approximately 90% reduction in durance vile and also in repetitive injuries.”
More technical notes on the All the Windwracked Stars revision
“Not only are you willing to let a guilty terrorist sit in durance vile with no assurance that her commission would ever convene, you stated baldly that the only reason to convene such a commission would be to render a death sentence.”
“I'm afraid I disagree: the threat of putting Paadilla back in durance vile hangs over any plea bargain, so the case is very much live.”
“Then said Musa, “Ask him why he is in durance of this column?””
“But a servant commonly is less free in mind than in condition; his very will seems to be in bonds and shackles, and desire itself under a kind of durance and captivity.”
“She would not act on her own, without her brother's counsel and support, and Olivier had been in durance long enough.”
“Pooh! pooh! they dared not keep me a week of days in durance.”
““I hope,” continued her ladyship, addressing Matilda, “that you, dear Miss Trevanion, will not undergo such durance vile; but that we shall often see you at Richmond in the course of the summer.””
“Old Nandy had been several times to the Marshalsea College, communicating with his son – in – law during his short durance there; and had happily acquired to himself, and had by degrees and in course of time much improved, the patronage of the Father of that national institution.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘durance’.
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Visuals
A list of words which yield surprising, beautiful, amusing, or otherwise noteworthy images here on Wordnik.
photochrom, fufluns, thank you, cool l..., postcard, picture postcard, cricket, physiological ill..., Gakuryū Ishii, ametropia, One Froggy Evening, rhodopsin, Santiago Calatrava and 624 more...
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Especially
Being a list of words which have "especially" in their definitions.
wringing-machine, especially, device, field, scrip, hit, catch, take, buck, flip, effluvium, proselyte and 100 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
yarb I could not answer him so glibly as I wished, not so much for want of words as of breath; for he hugged me so tight that I began to be alarmed for my wind pipe. As soon, however, as I had got my head out of durance, I replied, Signor cavalier, I had not the least conception that my name was known at Pegnaflor.
- Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 1 ch. 2 Sep 11, 2008
yarb Citation on peeler. Jun 30, 2008