DURANCE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Durance

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

Listen

noun

Durance n.

Continuance; duration. See Endurance. (Archaic) "Of how short durance was this new-made state!"

Imprisonment; restraint of the person; custody by a jailer; duress. Shak. "Durance vile." "In durance, exile, Bedlam or the mint."

(a)

A stout cloth stuff, formerly made in imitation of buff leather and used for garments; a sort of tammy or everlasting. "Where didst thou buy this buff? let me not live but I will give thee a good suit of durance."

(b)

In modern manufacture, a worsted of one color used for window blinds and similar purposes.

See images of 'Durance'

Etymology of 'Durance'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Durance" Quotes from Famous Books

... he told him; and adjusting carefully the pillows of the youth, and disposing the bedclothes comfortably, and promising to see him again before he slept, our woodman bade him good night, and descended to the great hall of the tavern, where Jared Bunce was held in durance. ...

— Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia • William Gilmore Simms

... which in this place I sought; To thee no reason, who knowest only good, But evil hast not tried: and wilt object His will who bounds us! Let him surer bar His iron gates, if he intends our stay In that dark durance: Thus much what was asked. The rest is true, they found me where they say; But that implies not violence or harm. Thus he in scorn. The warlike Angel moved, Disdainfully half smiling, thus replied. O loss of one in Heaven to judge of wise Since Satan fell, whom folly overthrew, And now ...

— Paradise Lost • John Milton

... still in durance, and the baronet had not recovered from his profound inclination, when a noise from the neighbouring beechwood startled the two actors in this courtly pantomime. They turned their heads, and beheld the hope of Raynham on horseback surveying the scene. The next ...

— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... are not used to understanding such things—you are not used to hearing me talk of my feelings. You are altogether too much taken up with your own. Be as much so as you please; I have always respected your right. Only when I have kept myself in durance on purpose to leave you an open field, don't, by way of thanking me, come and call ...

— Roderick Hudson • Henry James

... the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle. And is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance? ...

— Shakespeare's Lost Years in London, 1586-1592 • Arthur Acheson

More quotes...