FORTITUDE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Fortitude

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/fˈɔrtɪtˌud/ Listen

noun

Fortitude n.

Power to resist attack; strength; firmness. (Obs.) "The fortitude of the place is best known to you."

That strength or firmness of mind which enables a person to encounter danger with coolness and courage, or to bear pain or adversity without murmuring, depression, or despondency; passive courage; resolute endurance; firmness in confronting or bearing up against danger or enduring trouble. "Extolling patience as the truest fortitude." "Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtues."

Synonyms: Courage; resolution; resoluteness; endurance; bravery. See Courage, and Heroism.

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Etymology of 'Fortitude'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Fortitude" Quotes from Famous Books

... promise of returning after taking leave of their kindred and consoling them in their distresses and misfortunes. The answer of Colonel Winslow to this petition was to grant leave of absence to twenty only, for a single day. This sentence they bore with fortitude and resignation, but when the hour of embarkation arrived, in which they were to part with their friends and relatives without a hope of ever seeing them again, and to be dispersed among strangers, ...

— Acadia - or, A Month with the Blue Noses • Frederic S. Cozzens

... ended ingloriously. To what are we to attribute it? I believe to a miserable Set of General Officers. I mean to make some Exceptions. For the Sake of our Country, my dear Friend, let me ask, Is our Army perpetually to be an unanimated one; because there is not Fortitude enough to remove those bad Men. I remember the Factions in Carthage which prevented her making herself the Mistress of the World. We may avoid Factions and yet rid our Army of idle cowardly or drunken officers. HOW was Victory snatchd out of our Hands at German Town! Was not this ...

— The Original Writings of Samuel Adams, Volume 4 • Samuel Adams

... distribution of the cardinal virtues between men and women it is generally claimed that the former possess courage, the latter fortitude. Although the pages of history are gilded with innumerable instances of the remarkable courage of women of all ages and conditions, and oftimes dimmed with the records of cowardice in men of all classes, yet what has been said for generations will probably be repeated, even in the face of ...

— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III (of III) • Various

... it sounds very immoral, but whatever his crimes were, I should never like Alec less. You see, he's been so awfully good and kind to me, I can look on with fortitude while he plays football ...

— The Explorer • W. Somerset Maugham

... off their hats, and the Consul inflicted the address on him. He bore it with unflinching fortitude; then took the rusty-looking document and handed it to some great officer or other, to be filed away among the archives of Russia—in the stove. He thanked us for the address, and said he was very much pleased to see us, especially as such friendly relations existed ...

— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

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