Other forms: tolerated, tolerates, tolerating
To tolerate is to put up with something you dislike. Tolerate the noise, will not tolerate it, hard to tolerate.
It means enduring rather than accepting, which is why calling somebody tolerant is weaker praise than it sounds. Will not tolerate is the standard formula in policies and warnings. In medicine, to tolerate a drug is to take it without bad effects, and in plants, drought-tolerant means able to survive it. Note tolerance and tolerable, which means bearable rather than good — the food was tolerable.
1verbtolerateTo put up with something you dislike.
“They tolerated the noise for about two years and then complained.”
synonyms: bear, endure, put up with
2verbtakeTo take a drug or condition without harm.
“She tolerated the treatment better than anybody expected.”
tolerate is a way of enduring.
Also accepted in games: bear, endure
Latin tolerare means to bear or endure, related to a root meaning to lift or carry. Tolerating something is carrying it, which is a heavier image than the polite modern word suggests.
Proto-Indo-European
*telh₂- (bear)
Latin
tolerātus
English, today
tolerate
Built from
Latin tolerātus, the perfect passive participle of tolerō (“to endure”), see -ate. Cognate with Old English þolian (“to tolerate, suffer, bear”) and French tolérer. More at thole.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA