Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To be obstinately repetitious, insistent, or tenacious.
  • intransitive verb To hold firmly and steadfastly to a purpose, state, or undertaking despite obstacles, warnings, or setbacks.
  • intransitive verb To continue in existence; last.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To continue steadily and firmly in some state, course of action, or pursuit, especially in spite of opposition, remonstrance, etc.; persevere, especially with some degree of obstinacy.

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

  • intransitive verb To stand firm; to be fixed and unmoved; to stay; to continue steadfastly; especially, to continue fixed in a course of conduct against opposing motives; to persevere; -- sometimes conveying an unfavorable notion, as of doggedness or obstinacy.

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

  • verb intransitive To go on stubbornly or resolutely.
  • verb intransitive To repeat an utterance.
  • verb intransitive To continue to exist.
  • verb computing, transitive To cause to persist; make permanent.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb stay behind
  • verb continue to exist
  • verb be persistent, refuse to stop

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin persistere : per-, per- + sistere, to stand; see stā- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • "I do dimly perceive that whilst everything around me is ever changing, ever dying, there is underlying all that change a living power that is changeless, that holds all together,that creates, dissolves, and re-creates. That informing power or spirit is God.

    And since nothing else that I see merely through the senses can or will persist, God alone is.

    And is this power benevolent or malevolent? I see it as purely benevolent. For I can see that in the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists.

    - Mahatma Gandhi.

    October 16, 2008