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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Durance

Durance \Dur"ance\, n. [OF. durance duration, fr. L. durans, -antis, p. pr. durare to endure, last. See Dure, and cf. Durant.]

  1. Continuance; duration. See Endurance. [Archaic]

    Of how short durance was this new-made state!
    --Dryden.

  2. Imprisonment; restraint of the person; custody by a jailer; duress. Shak. ``Durance vile.''
    --Burns.

    In durance, exile, Bedlam or the mint.
    --Pope.

    1. A stout cloth stuff, formerly made in imitation of buff leather and used for garments; a sort of tammy or everlasting.

      Where didst thou buy this buff? let me not live but I will give thee a good suit of durance.
      --J. Webster.

    2. In modern manufacture, a worsted of one color used for window blinds and similar purposes.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
durance

late 15c., from Old French durance "duration," from durer "to endure," from Latin durare (see endure).

Wiktionary
durance

n. 1 (context obsolete English) duration. 2 (context obsolete English) endurance. 3 (context archaic English) imprisonment; forced confinement.

WordNet
durance

n. imprisonment (especially for a long time)

Wikipedia
Durance

The Durance (Durença in Occitan or Durènço in Mistralian) is a major river in south-eastern France.

Its source is in the south-western Alps, in Montgenèvre ski resort near Briançon and it flows south-west through the following departments and cities:

  • Hautes-Alpes: Briançon, Embrun.
  • Alpes-de-Haute-Provence: Sisteron, Manosque.
  • Vaucluse: Cavaillon, Avignon.
  • Bouches-du-Rhône.

The Durance's main tributaries are the Bléone and Verdon. The Durance itself is a tributary of the Rhône and flows into the Rhône near Avignon. The Durance is the second longest (after the Saône) of the tributaries of the Rhône and the third largest in terms of its flow (after the Saône and Isère).

Durance (role-playing game)

Durance is a science fiction role-playing game by Jason Morningstar, independently published by Bully Pulpit Games who also released Fiasco. The game was a 2011 entry on the annual Game Chef game design competition and went on to raise $27,458 (639 backers) of its $5000 goal on kickstarter in June 2012.

Usage examples of "durance".

She was right impressed to be serving a man of the cloth, which I was back in those days, and I converted the bejabbers out of her three or four times a day, which made my incarceration in durance vile a mite easier to take.

He began quoting Colney Durance with relish while sarcastically confuting the cynic, who found much pasture in these Gardens.

She can come along with us, hang around Ploce or join him in, as you say, durance vile.

Colney Durance could excuse the unreasonableness in her, for it had a dignity, and she controlled it, and quietly suffered, trusting to the steady, tireless, concentrated aim of her France.

Colney had to be overcome afresh, and he fled, but managed, with two or three of his bitter phrases, to make a cuttle-fish fight of it, that oppressively shadowed his vanquisher: The Daniel Lambert of Cities: the Female Annuitant of Nations:--and such like, wretched stuff, proper to Colney Durance, easily dispersed and outlaughed when we have our vigour.

So spoke Master Prout, with a twinkle of the eye at the Knight, on account of the good thing which he fancied he had said, and the woman lost no time in extricating herself from durance.

Durance must be right when he called the social English the most sheepy of sheep:--and Nesta could not consent to the cruel verdict, she adored her compatriots.

XVI Perchance a lady sweet, whose lord lay slain, The robbers into gruesome durance drew.

Entreated, adjured, commanded, Skepsey commiseratingly observed to Colney Durance, 'The ladies do not understand, sir!

Colney Durance came in, bringing the rumour of an Australian cantatrice to kindle Europe.

The province of Marseilles, as far as the Durance, was afterwards ceded to the Ostrogoths.

During that infernal submersion among demonry, the pair acquired the friendship-till-death of the shape-shifter Gildmirth of Sordon, whom they set at liberty from durance in that vile abyss.

It was the loom of many fires at Cahokia, and around them the chiefs of the forty tribes--all save the three in durance vile--were gathered in solemn talk.

He can't protect anyone if they kill him on Jasbir or lock him away in durance vile for the next century!

There's your villain, baby girl-the politically appointed bureaucrat who has most unjustly held you in durance vile.