durst

durst

See also: Durst

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɝst/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)st

Verb

durst

1. (archaic, literary) simple past tense of dare
   • Traditional rhyme

     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 Early Modern English).

Derived terms

• durstn't/dursn't/dursen't

Anagrams

• turds