dree
/dɹiː/US/dɹi/
dree verb: to bear or endure (something); to put up with, to suffer, to undergo. Also the alternative form of dreich.
Verb
dree (third-person singular simple present drees, present participle dreeing, simple past and past participle dreed)
- To bear or endure (something); to put up with, to suffer, to undergo.
- 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
- 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...
- To endure; to brook; also, to be able to do or continue.
Noun
dree (plural drees)
- Grief; 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)
Adverb
dree (comparative more dree, superlative most dree)
- Of the doing of a task: with concentration; laboriously.
- Chiefly of the falling of rain: without pause or stop; continuously, incessantly.
- Slowly, tediously.
Also used as
dree is also the alternative form of dreich.
Synonyms of dree
17 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of dree
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | drees |
| present participle | dreeing |
| past participle | dreed |
| past | dreed |
| Noun | |
| plural | drees |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more dree |
| superlative | most dree |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | dreer |
| superlative | dreest |
Origin of dree
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”)
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.
From dreich (adjective).
Words formed from dree
Words that rhyme with dree
Questions about dree
- What does dree mean?
- Dree means to bear or endure (something); to put up with, to suffer, to undergo.
- What part of speech is dree?
- Dree can be a verb, a noun or an adverb.
- How do you pronounce dree?
- Dree is pronounced /dɹiː/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of dree?
- The past tense of dree is dreed.
Words near dree in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dree (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “dree.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dree. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.