Abide

How to spell abide

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce abide

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does abide mean?

1. verbTo put up with or tolerate something, usually used in the negative.
2. verbTo act in accordance with a rule, decision, or agreement, typically used with 'by'.
3. verbTo remain, stay, or continue, often in a literary or older register.

Abide in a sentence

• She cannot abide rude behaviour from her staff.

• All members must abide by the terms of the contract.

• The old hymn asks the light to abide with us through the night.

• He simply could not abide the constant noise from the building site.

• Competitors agree to abide by the judge's final decision.

• A faint hope still seemed to abide in their hearts.

Where does abide come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a genuinely old native word, descending from the Old English abidan, formed from the intensifying prefix a- and the verb bidan, which meant 'to wait, to stay, to remain'. That bidan is the same ancestor that survives today in the verb 'bide', as in the phrase 'bide your time'. The earliest sense was simply to wait for something or to stay in a place, and from 'remaining' came the figurative idea of 'enduring' or 'putting up with' something unpleasant. The modern negative use, as in 'I cannot abide', grew out of that endurance sense, while the legal-sounding 'abide by the rules' kept the older flavour of standing firm and remaining true to something. Because the word has been spelled with a single b and a silent magic e since Middle English, it gives modern writers little trouble.

How the word is built

• a- (Old English intensive prefix)
• bide (to wait, remain, endure)