Definition of "suffer" []

• To feel pain or distress; sustain loss, injury, harm, or punishment. (verb-intransitive)
• To tolerate or endure evil, injury, pain, or death. See Synonyms at bear1. (verb-intransitive)
• To appear at a disadvantage: "He suffers by comparison with his greater contemporary” ( Albert C. Baugh). (verb-intransitive)
• To undergo or sustain (something painful, injurious, or unpleasant): "Ordinary men have always had to suffer the history their leaders were making” ( Herbert J. Muller). (verb-transitive)
• To experience; undergo: suffer a change in staff. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Speaking at the U.N. Conference on Climate Change in N.w York, President Obama says the world must address climate change now, or what he calls suffer irreversible catastrophe."
• "On one side are the proponents of individual responsibility, who believe that fat people suffer from a surplus of self-indulgence and a shortage of willpower."
• "About 90% of diabetics – 2.5 million people in the UK – suffer from the type 2 condition."