dree

• IPA^(key): /dɹiː/

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• Rhymes: -iː

From Middle English dreen, dreghen, dreogen, from Old English drēogan, from Proto-Germanic *dreuganą (“to work, act, do military service”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ- (“to hold fast”). Cognate with Scots dree, drie (“to endure, thole, suffer, bear”), Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌹𐌿𐌲𐌰𐌽 (driugan, “to do military service”), Icelandic drýgja (“to commit, connect, perpetrate, lengthen”). See also dright, drighten.

dree (third-person singular simple present drees, present participle dreeing, simple past and past participle dreed)

1. (transitive, chiefly dialectal, North England and Scotland) To suffer; bear; endure; put up with; undergo.
   • 1826, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, The Literary Gazette, 16th September: The Frozen Ship:

     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!

   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, volume 8:

     And redoubled pine for its dwellers I dree.

2. (intransitive, chiefly dialectal, North England and Scotland) To endure; brook; be able to do or continue.

• (suffer): See also Thesaurus:tolerate
• (endure):

• adree
• dree one's weird

From Middle English dreȝ, dregh, dryȝ (“long, extended, great”), from Old English *drēog (“fit, sober, earnest”) and/or Old Norse drjúgr (“extensive, sufficient”); both from Proto-Germanic *dreugaz (“extensive, firm”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ- (“to hold fast”). Cognate with Scots dreich (“extensive, lasting, long-lasting, tedious, tiresome, slow”), West Frisian drege (“extensive, long-lasting”), Danish drøj (“tough, solid, heavy”), Swedish dryg (“lasting, liberal, hard, large, ample”), Icelandic drjúgur (“long, substantial, ample, heavy”).

• dreigh, dreegh (Scotland)

dree (comparative more dree, superlative most dree)

1. (now chiefly dialectal) Long; large; ample; great.
2. (now chiefly dialectal) Great; of serious moment.
3. (now chiefly dialectal) Tedious; wearisome; tiresome.

• dreely

From Middle English dreghe, dregh, from dregh, dreȝ (“long, extended, great”). See above.

dree (plural drees)

1. (now chiefly dialectal) Length; extension; the longest part.
2. (archaic, chiefly dialectal) Trouble, grief, suffering.
   • 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):

     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.

• -dere, Eder, Rede, Reed, de re, deer, dere, rede, reed

• drei
• dre

From Middle Low German drê, drî, drie, from Old Saxon thrie.

dree

1. three

• (ordinal numeral) darde (East Frisian), drüdde, drüdd', drütt, drütte (in Dithmarschen)

dree

1. second-person singular imperative of dreeën

From Middle Low German drê, drî, drie, from Old Saxon thrie.

dree

1. three

From Old English drēogan, from Proto-West Germanic *dreugan, from Proto-Germanic *dreuganą.

• IPA^(key): /driː/

dree (third-person singular simple present drees, present participle dreein, simple past dreed, past participle dreed)

1. to endure, suffer, put up with, undergo

• dree one’s weird

dree

1. Alternative form of dhree
   • 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY:

     Dree deemes.

     Three times.

• Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, page 33