Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To suffer; bear; endure: as, to dree penance.
  • To endure; be able to do or continue.
  • Long; large; ample; great.
  • Great; of serious moment.
  • Tedious; wearisome; tiresome.
  • noun Length; extension; the longest part.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb obsolete To be able to do or endure.
  • adjective Prov. Eng. Wearisome; tedious.
  • transitive verb Scot. To endure; to suffer.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To suffer; bear; thole; endure; put up with; undergo.
  • verb intransitive To endure; brook; be able to do or continue.
  • noun Length; extension; the longest part.
  • adjective Long; large; ample; great.
  • adjective Great; of serious moment.
  • adjective Tedious; wearisome; tiresome.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English dreen, dreghen, dreogen, from Old English drēogan ("to do, work, perform, fulfill, take part in, conduct, lead a (certain) life, pass life, fight, wander, commit, perpetrate, do battle, wage war, experience, bear, suffer, endure, sustain, tolerate, act, labor, enjoy, be employed, be busy"), from Proto-Germanic *dreuganan (“to work, act, do military service”), from Proto-Indo-European *dhereugh- (“to hold fast”), from Proto-Indo-European *dher- (“to hold, hold fast, support”). Cognate with Scots dree, drie ("to endure, thole, suffer, bear"), Gothic  (driugan, "to do military service"), Icelandic drýgja ("to commit, connect, perpetrate, lengthen"). See also dright, drighten.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English dreghe, dregh, from dregh, dreȝ ("long, extended, great"). See above.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English dreȝ, dregh, dryȝ ("long, extended, great"), from Old English *drēog ("fit, sober, earnest") and/or Old Norse drjúgr ("extensive, sufficient"); both from Proto-Germanic *dreugaz (“extensive, firm”), from Proto-Indo-European *dhereugh- (“to hold fast”), from Proto-Indo-European *dher- (“to hold, hold fast, support”). Cognate with Scots dreich ("extensive, lasting, long-lasting, tedious, tiresome, slow"), West Frisian drege ("extensive, long-lasting"), Danish drøj ("tough, solid, heavy"), Swedish dryg ("lasting, liberal, hard, large, ample"), Icelandic drjúgur ("long, substantial, ample, heavy").

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Examples

Comments

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  • —adj.

    tedious; dreary.

    —v.t.

    to suffer; endure.

    See dree one's weird.

    October 25, 2008

  • During this voyage ye heavens has been so dree overcast that

    no observation by stars, nor yet by sun can be got.

    - Peter Reading, Ukulele Music, 1985

    June 19, 2009