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What is "withstand"

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withstand
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
withstand
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
ability
▪ Some doubted its ability to withstand rough weather.
▪ Similarly, much depends on the armed forces' ability to withstand the cartels' attempts to penetrate and co-opt them.
▪ Democratic states, like all others, survive through their ability to withstand external threats.
▪ However, the spadefoot's body tissues have the remarkable ability to withstand the loss of large amounts of water.
▪ Healthy root development is reflected in robust top growth and an ability to withstand drought, pest and disease problems.
▪ It is evidence of cricket's longevity, of its ability to withstand changing moods.
▪ These animals possess the remarkable ability to withstand intense heat and drought for prolonged periods of time.
▪ Practitioners respect its low toxicity and its ability to withstand the enormous pressures generated in the back teeth.
onslaught
▪ River organisms' ability to survive the disruption of floods was never evolved to withstand this kind of onslaught.
▪ It seemed to withstand the onslaught of bicycles, tricycles and roller skates with scarcely a scratch to show.
▪ Could my various injuries withstand the onslaught?
▪ The body of the adult human, however, can often withstand this chemical onslaught and ultimately recover fully.
▪ Hardliners reckon that without him they could not withstand a reformist onslaught for long.
plant
▪ While companies talk about sustainable agriculture, they create plant varieties that can withstand being sprayed by their most virulent herbicides.
▪ No animal or plant can withstand ultraviolet radiation in more than modest amounts.
pressure
▪ Divided élite leading the assault upon itself may be in no position to withstand the pressures of a restless population.
▪ The tendons increase the curvature of the balloon's skin and mean the material can withstand greater pressures.
▪ It was hard to believe that this clumsy box of bricks was strong enough to withstand the pressure of its wings.
▪ Little more persuasive is the argument that under another tsar the regime could have withstood revolutionary pressure indefinitely.
▪ This particular P.C. may be a very strong-minded man and be determined to withstand the pressure being brought upon him.
▪ The domes are made of a steel-nickel alloy which can withstand high pressure and even explosions.
▪ The hero shrew has an armoured backbone that can withstand enormous pressure.
▪ I can withstand the pressures of the system.
scrutiny
▪ Other popular myths also fail to withstand close scrutiny.
▪ None of that would matter much if the material could withstand the scrutiny.
▪ Efforts to stain paper artificially to give an appearance of age have little hope of withstanding careful scrutiny.
▪ Dogmas that could not withstand scrutiny withered, while those that accommodated observations and questioning prospered.
▪ But neither he nor his flat tax could withstand the media scrutiny and attacks from Dole and much of the Republican establishment.
temperature
▪ But one inventor thinks he has the answer - a building material made of straw that can withstand very high temperatures.
▪ The plant is sensitive to alkaline conditions and prefers cool waters but temporarily withstands higher temperatures.
▪ Of course different clays can withstand different firing temperatures before they vitrify and lose their structural integrity.
▪ Sensitivity Orfe are generally a very hardy species and can easily withstand the cold winter temperatures that will occur in the pond.
■ VERB
design
▪ It is designed to withstand the sort of storm that statistically would be expected to occur once in every 10,000 years.
▪ Also, tidal power generators must be designed to withstand severe wave action and the corrosive effects of seawater.
▪ The transporters are designed to withstand accidents and until recently the Govenrment ruled out any possibility of a radioactive leak.
▪ Earlier this month the MoD repeated its claim that transporters are designed to withstand major accidents.
▪ The pto is designed to withstand the engine's high torque.
▪ Most disc harrows are of rugged, heavy-duty construction designed to withstand extremely tough working conditions.
▪ The pressure bearings into which the rotors were set had been designed to withstand the strongest winds with a margin of safety.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Owens has withstood many attacks on his leadership.
▪ The bridge is built to withstand an earthquake of 8.3 magnitude.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ An epidemic of such proportions that nothing could withstand it.
▪ It can withstand knocks, is low-odour and quick-drying.
▪ It must also be robust enough to withstand the wear and tear of the postal system and the editor's desk.
▪ Lind also installed carpeting that could withstand the impact of the wheels.
▪ Rear-facing safety seats can not withstand deployment of an airbag, the agency said.
▪ The plant is sensitive to alkaline conditions and prefers cool waters but temporarily withstands higher temperatures.
▪ They might dislike what he did but could not withstand what he was as a result of doing it.
▪ Working copy: not likely to withstand further toil.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Withstand

Withstand \With*stand"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Withstood; p. pr. & vb. n. Withstanding.] [AS. wi[eth]standan. See With, prep., and Stand.] To stand against; to oppose; to resist, either with physical or moral force; as, to withstand an attack of troops; to withstand eloquence or arguments.
--Piers Plowman.

I withstood him to the face.
--Gal. ii. 11.

Some village Hampden, that, with dauntless breast. The little tyrant of his fields withstood.
--Gray.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
withstand

Old English wiðstandan "resist, oppose," from wið "against" (see with) + standan "to stand" (see stand (v.)); perhaps a loan-translation of Latin resistere "to resist" (see resist). Similar formation in Old Norse viðstanda, Old Frisian withstonda, Old High German widarstan, German widerstehen. In 14c. and early 15c., withsit was in use with the same meaning. Related: Withstood; withstanding.

Wiktionary
withstand

vb. 1 To resist or endure (something) successfully. 2 To oppose (something) forcefully.

Related phrases:
WordNet
withstand

  1. v. resist or confront with resistance; "The politician defied public opinion"; "The new material withstands even the greatest wear and tear"; "The bridge held" [syn: defy, hold, hold up]

  2. stand up or offer resistance to somebody or something [syn: resist, hold out, stand firm] [ant: surrender]

  3. [also: withstood]

Usage examples of "withstand".

What the crushingly powerful four-limbed hug would have done to a human unprotected by a suit designed to withstand pressures comparable to those found at the bottom of an ocean probably did not bear thinking about, but then a human exposed without protection to the conditions required to support Affronter life would be dying in at least three excitingly different and painful ways anyway without having to worry about being crushed by a cage of leg-thick tentacles.

But the walls of the city withstood the strokes of their battering-rams: and the besiegers pitched their tents on the neighboring mountain of Jaushan.

The garrison consisted of about six thousand men, commanded by the prince of Bergue: but the besiegers carried on their works with such rapidity as they could not withstand.

Those times, having bespelled the guardsmen and grooms to look elsewhere, he had struck harder and harder blows with fist and sword to make sure the shield was strong enough to withstand a heavy physical attack.

Pikes were flying through the air, and though the ballista and their own good swords were keeping the enemy at a respectful distance, there was none among them who believed that they could for long withstand the superior numbers and the bettor equipment of their adversaries.

Evidently it did not open on outer air, yet it was built as if to withstand the battering of mangonels and rams.

Is it strange, when woman has thus exhausted her energies, when her body trembles with fatigue and her mind is agitated with responsibilities, that the menses capriciously return, or the uterus is unable to withstand congestion, and capillary hemorrhage becomes excessive?

Like most close-support helicopters, the Werewolf was well protected against ground attack, the armoured shield round the cockpit designed to withstand 20 millimetre cannon strikes.

Like an outclassed warrior seeking only to hold his foe at bay as long as he could, he withstood or beat aside wizardry that would have devastated a stronger but less purposeful magician.

She resented being set aside, shut off from his presence, then brought out like some fragile porcelain doll that could not withstand the strain of being overheld, overloved, or overused, and be commanded to perform for his guests.

The huge Pacific seas, extending in unbroken lines sometimes a mile or half as much again in length, hurl themselves upon the reef, overtowering and falling upon it with tremendous crashes, and yet the fragile coral structure withstands the shock and protects the land.

There was no way that my flimsy parasail could withstand even a close miss by one of these vortexes -- and there was no way that the funnels were going to miss me.

In a paper published in Astronautica Acta in 1973 he points out that a ramjet built of aluminum could withstand a journey of 12.

Morgan Lefler would have been able to withstand the rebooting of the computer.

But Koshmar in her extraordinary resilience had withstood all these blows.