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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

dree.

To bear or endure (something); to put up with, to suffer, to undergo.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/dɹiː/Received-Pronunciation/dɹi/General-American/ðreː/Ireland/driː/Ireland
  1. To bear or endure (something); to put up with, to suffer, to undergo.

    Northern-England · Scotland · transitive
  2. To endure; to brook; also, to be able to do or continue.

    Northern-England · Scotland · intransitive
Where this word comes from

Probably partly borrowed from Scots dree, and partly derived from its etymon Middle English dreen, dreghen, dreogen, drien, from Old English drēogan, from Proto-West Germanic *dreugan, from Proto-Germanic *dreuganą (“to act; to work, (specifically) to do military service”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ- (“to hold fast”). Doublet of dreich, dright, and drighten. Cognates * Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌹𐌿𐌲𐌰𐌽 (driugan, “to do military service”) * Icelandic drýgja (“to commit, connect, perpetrate, lengthen”) * Scots dree, drie (“to bear, endure, suffer, thole”)

noun/dɹiː/Received-Pronunciation/dɹi/General-American/ðreː/Ireland/driː/Ireland
  1. Grief; suffering; trouble.

    Northern-England · Northumbria · Scotland · archaic
Where this word comes from

Probably partly: * derived from the verb (see etymology 1); and * borrowed from Scots dree, or derived from its etymon Middle English dri, drie, dregh, dreghe (“annoyance, trouble; grief; period of time”), possibly from Middle English dregh, dri, drie (“burdensome; depressing, dismal; large, tall; lasting, long; long-suffering, patient; tedious; of blows: hard, heavy; of the face: unchanging, unmoved; of a person: strong, valorous”), from Old English *drēog, *drēoȝ, dreoh (“earnest; fit; sober”), and then probably partly: ** shortened from Old English gedrēog (“calm, quiet; sober; fit, suitable”, adjective); and ** influenced by Old Norse drjúgr (“sufficient; excessive, very; great; strong”), from Proto-Germanic *dreugaz (see above). Doublet of dreich.

adv/dɹiː/Received-Pronunciation/dɹi/General-American/ðreː/Ireland/driː/Ireland
  1. Of the doing of a task: with concentration; laboriously.

    Northern-England · Scotland
  2. Chiefly of the falling of rain: without pause or stop; continuously, incessantly.

    Northern-England · Scotland
  3. Slowly, tediously.

    Northern-England · Scotland
Where this word comes from

From dreich (adjective).

adj/dɹiː/Received-Pronunciation/dɹi/General-American/ðreː/Ireland/driː/Ireland
  1. Alternative form of dreich.

    Northern-England · Scotland · alt-of · alternative
Where this word comes from

See dreich.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.