1651 G. Fox Jrnl. (1911) I. 14 Two men sufferd for small thinges: & I was moved..to Incourage y^m concerneinge there suffringe.

c1660 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1644 (1955) II. 246 The Suffering of St. Laurence painted a fresca on the Wall.

1805 C. Collingwood Let. 24 Oct. in Daily Chron. (1905) 10 July 3/4 This Great day has not been without a considerable suffering on our part in loss of Officers and Men.

c1450 (c1390) G. Chaucer Complaint of Venus 45 Thus be we euyr in drede and suffrynge.

a1771 T. Gray tr. Dante in Wks. (1884) I. 159 Far less shall be Our Suffering, Sir.

1818 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Canto IV xxii. 14 All suffering doth destroy, or is destroy'd, Even by the sufferer.

1829 E. Bulwer-Lytton Devereux II. iv. i. 135 I rose from the bed of suffering and of madness,..altered, but tranquil.

1890 Hardwicke's Sci.-gossip 26 53/2 It is just those energetic, matter-of-fact people, who..are the most likely to interfere and to aggravate suffering.

1609 S. Daniel Civile Wares (rev. ed.) iv. lxxv. 106 Future ill On present suffrings, bruted to aryse.

1611 Bible (King James) Rom. viii. 18 The sufferings of this present time. View more context for this quotation

1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost iv. 26 Of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue. View more context for this quotation

1736 Bp. J. Butler Analogy of Relig. i. ii. 32 We cannot find by Experience, that all our Sufferings are owing to our own Follies.

1764 R. Burn Hist. Poor Laws 197 The sufferings indeed of the poor are less known, than their misdeeds.

1780 J. Bentham Introd. Princ. Morals & Legisl. (1789) xiv. §1 This is a suffering common to all.

1862 M. Napier Mem. Life Visct. Dundee II. 84 All were expected, under the Orange Revolution, to contribute a suffering, however small, to this grand Commination of the governments of the Restoration.

1877 ‘Mrs. Forrester’ Mignon I. 221 She is callous to his sufferings.

1661 F. Howgill in Extracts State Papers (Friends' Hist. Soc.) (1911) 2nd Ser. 129 Wee haue made it our work to collect vp all the sufferings from all partes & to make what vse wee cann of them.

1683 S. Meade in Jrnl. Friends' Hist. Soc. (1914) Oct. 165 An exact Acc^t of all you^r sufferings..sent up hithe^r to the meettinge of sufferrings, in orde^r to bee putt to the rest of ffriends sufferrings, y^t are presented to y^e Kinge.

a1691 G. Fox Coll. Christian Epist. 109 All Friends every where, that are in any Sufferings, let your Sufferings be gathered up together in every County.

1708 J. Chamberlayne Magnæ Britanniæ Notitia (ed. 22) i. iii. i. 200 Their Meetings..are..Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly, Second-Days Meetings, and Meeting of Sufferings.

1837 W. Allen Jrnl. in Life (1847) III. 265 Fifty Friends of the Meeting for Sufferings met.

1906 Christ. Discipl. Soc. Friends II. xi. 59 The Meeting for Sufferings (so called from the nature of its original object) is a standing representative committee of the Yearly Meeting, and is entrusted with a general care of whatever may arise during the intervals of the Yearly Meeting affecting the Society.

1609 W. Shakespeare Louers Complaint in Sonnets sig. K4 Gentle maid Haue of my suffering youth some feeling pitty.

1646 H. Hammond View Exceptions to Visct. Falkland's Disc. Infallibilitie 102 It is well knowne that..where both religions are professed..none be on the suffering hand but we, none persecutes but they.

1660 R. Allestree Gentlemans Calling Pref. sig. a4^v The Martyrologie even of these suffering times.

1687 J. Dryden Hind & Panther iii. 81 You have your day, or you are much bely'd, But I am always on the suff'ring side.

1705 G. Stanhope Paraphr. Epist. & Gospels I. 11 We can feed and cloath hungry and naked Christ in his suffering Members.

a1716 R. South 12 Serm. (1717) VI. 296 The Christian Religion..is a suffering Religion.

1790 E. Burke Refl. Revol. in France 123 Deserters from principle,..they never see any good in suffering virtue. View more context for this quotation

1814 J. Austen Mansfield Park I. xviii. 357 Such nature and feeling in it as must..make it a very suffering exhibition to herself. View more context for this quotation

1820 P. B. Shelley Prometheus Unbound i. i. 51 Many..live among their suffering fellow-men As if none felt.

1828 E. Bulwer-Lytton Pelham II. xiii. 126 Mr. Chitterling Crabtree..subscribed to the aid of the suffering friends of freedom.

1885 Athenæum 18 July 79/3 Her verse is characterized by..keen sympathy with suffering man and woman.

1661 J. Perrot (title) To the Suffering Seed of Royalty, Wheresoever Tribulated upon the Face of the whole Earth.

1664 S. Butler Hudibras: Second Pt. ii. ii. 96 That Sinners may supply the place Of suff'ring Saints, is a plain Case.

1668 J. Dryden Secret-love Epil. A whipt Fanatick who does not recant Is by his Brethren call'd a suffring Saint.

1682 J. Graham Let. 1 Mar. (modernized text) in M. Napier Mem. Life Visct. Dundee (1862) II. 267 I would desire leave to draw out of the two regiments a hundred of the best musketeers had served abroad; and I should take horses here, amongst the suffering sinners.]

1896 ‘Iota’ Quaker Grandmother 317 Harry was as yet scarcely in fit condition for any suffering-saint phase to be foisted upon him.

1885 ‘Mrs. Alexander’ Valerie's Fate iii My poor friend is very suffering and anxious to press on to Mentone.

1869 ‘M. Twain’ Innocents Abroad v. 52 The suffering Moses!—there ain't money enough in the ship to pay that bill!

1897 R. Kipling Captains Courageous vi. 134 ‘Sufferin' Christianity!’ sez Counahan (he always said that whin..he was not feelin' good).

1907 S. E. White Arizona Nights (U.K. ed.) xv. 217 Suffering cats, think how that fellow sized us up for a lot of pattern-made fools.

1931 S. Lewis Sel. Short Stories (1935) 162 Suffering cats! You might have been one of your uncles still puttering around with dirty pitchforks back on the farm!

1948 G. H. Johnston Death takes Small Bites v. 122 She doesn't think I've got any guts.’ ‘Well, sufferin' cat! What does she want? Alexander the Great?’

1977 J. Porter Who the Heck is Sylvia? vi. 54 Oh, suffering cats, with that bunch of lecherous thugs it could have been anybody!