durst

See also: Durst

English

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /dɝst/
Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)st

Verb

durst

(archaic, literary) simple past tense of dare
Four and Twenty tailors went to kill a snail; the best man among them durst not touch her tail...
- 1595, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream Act 2, Scene 2, lines 82-83
  Pretty soul! She durst not lie / Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.
- 1634, John Fletcher and William Shakespeare, The Two Noble Kinsmen Act 3, Scene 2
  That thou durst, Arcite!
- 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost Book I, line 49
  Who durst defy th' omnipotent to arms.
- 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. 6, Monk Samson
  Coming home, therefore, I sat me down secretly under the Shrine of St. Edmund, fearing lest our Lord Abbot should seize and imprison me, though I had done no mischief; nor was there a monk who durst speak to me, nor a laic who durst bring me food except by stealth.
- 1883: Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island
  Captain Smollett, the squire, and Dr. Livesey were talking together on the quarter-deck, and, anxious as I was to tell them my story, I durst not interrupt them openly.
- 1896, A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad, XXX, lines 1-2:
  Others, I am not the first,
  
  Have willed more mischief than they durst

Usage notes

The second-person singular (thou being the subject) no longer adds -est (as it did in Old English).

Derived terms

durstn't

Anagrams

turds

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