on sufferance
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Tolerated or allowed to remain, but not welcomed or valued.
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Được dung thứ hoặc cho phép tồn tại, nhưng không được chào đón hoặc đánh giá cao
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: on endurance of pain
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
He was living in the house on sufferance, until the owner returned.
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “on sufferance” mean?
Tolerated or allowed to remain, but not welcomed or valued. Literally: on endurance of pain
Is “on sufferance” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.