suffering

1. Experiencing pain; characterized by suffering.

   My heart is full, but my body too suffering to go on.

   1862, Ruth Bryan, Handfuls of purpose, page 427

   4 more examples

   Her last night was very suffering, the anodyne she took gave her no relief, and for the first time she lay till near noon.

   1839 August, Beacon, “The deathbed of Voltaire”, in Charles Benjamin Tayler, editor, The Christian Beacon, number 8, page 118

   I said that Miss Kinney opened the wound; I had not seen the burn then, myself; I was too ill and too suffering to rise up to see the whole surface of it; this was on Thursday morning, the morning after the operation, that I complained of such pain I must have something to relieve it, so she brought these strips of bandages and vaseline, and then she examined the wound, and without saying anything she took this brass pin and pricked it in several places;

   1900 May 8, Abram I. Elkus, Supreme Court : Helen D. Ward, Plaintiff, against Saint VIncent's Hospital, of the City of New York, Defendant., page 28

   Just to hear them was very suffering ... It must have been so unbearable to have to yell like that.

   2005, Great Britain: Parliament: House of Lords: Select Committee on the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill, Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill (HL), page 73

   I was listening her because she was telling me she was very suffering and that she was praying for her pains, for sinners, for poor, for ill people and for afflicted.

   2014, Silvia Michela Carrassi, Travels Through Spirit, page 114

   Synonyms: aching, in pain, sore, achesome, aching, achy, raw, hurt

plural sufferings

1. countableuncountableThe condition of someone who suffers; a state of pain or distress.

   Robins, of Torquay, had denied a single charge of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal. She claimed the microwave was accidentally turned on by one of the cats after the kitten got inside. But Knutton said the kitten was too small to even get onto the work surface.

   2011 December 14, Steven Morris, “Devon woman jailed for 168 days for killing kitten in microwave”, in The Guardian

   1 more example

   "The Japanese imperialists enforced the harshest colonial rule in history over Korea, bringing unspeakably horrible misfortune and sufferings and disasters to the Korean nation," said a spokesman for the Central Committee of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

   2010 August 22, “North Korea demands apology, reparations from Japan over colonization”, in CNN

   Synonyms: bale, torment, woe

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of suffer