dree

present singular third person drees · participle present dreeing · participle past dreed · past dreed

1. Northern EnglandScotlandtransitiveTo bear or endure (something); to put up with, to suffer, to undergo.

   And redoubled pine for its dwellers I dree.

   1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume VIII, [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   Peace to the souls of the graveless dead! / 'Twas an awful doom to dree; / But fearful and wondrous are thy works, / O God! in the boundless sea!

   1826, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, The Literary Gazette, 16th September: The Frozen Ship

   Synonyms: abear, abide, aby, accept, allow, bear, bide, brook

2. Northern EnglandScotlandintransitiveTo endure; to brook; also, to be able to do or continue.

plural drees

1. Northern EnglandNorthumbriaScotlandarchaicGrief; suffering; trouble.

   Life is blood, shed and offered. / The eagle’s eye can face this dree. / To beasts of chase the lie is proffered: / Timor Mortis Conturbat Me.

   1958, T[erence] H[anbury] White, chapter VIII, in The Once and Future King, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, book I (The Sword in the Stone)

comparative more dree · superlative most dree

1. Northern EnglandScotlandNortheast MidlandsOf the doing of a task: with concentration; laboriously.
2. Northern EnglandScotlandNortheast MidlandsChiefly of the falling of rain: without pause or stop; continuously, incessantly.
3. Northern EnglandScotlandLancashireSlowly, tediously.

comparative dreer · superlative dreest

1. Northern EnglandScotlandalternativeAlternative form of dreich.

   To be sure, t' winter's been a dree season, and thou'rt, maybe, in the right on't to make a late start.

   1863, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, “The Engagement”, in Sylvia’s Lovers. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 40

   2 more examples

   But he's lying i' such dree poverty,—and niver a friend to go near him,—niver a person to speak a kind word t' him.

   1863, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, “Wedding Raiment”, in Sylvia’s Lovers. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 278

   So, after two hours' running downhill, we came out in the level valley at Glashütte. It was raining now, a thick dree rain.

   a. 1931 (date written), D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “A Hay Hut among the Mountains”, in Warren Roberts, Harry T. Moore, editors, Phoenix II: Uncollected, Unpublished, and Other Prose Works by D. H. Lawrence […], Viking Compass edition, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, published 1970, →ISBN, part I (Stories and Sketches), page 43