durance

noun

1. (archaic, countable, uncountable)Imprisonment; forced confinement.

   “What bootes it him from death to be unbownd, / To be captived in endlesse duraunce / Of sorrow and despeyre without aleggeaunce!”

   “the parson concurred, saying, the Lord forbid he should be instrumental in committing an innocent person to durance.”

2. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Duration.
3. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Endurance, durability.

   “Fal. Thou ſay'ſt true Lad: is not my Hoſteſſe of the Tauerne a moſt ſweet Wench? / Prin. As is the hony, my old Lad of the Caſtle: and is not a Buffe Ierkin a moſt ſweet robe of durance?”

   “O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall / Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap / May who ne’er hung there. Nor does long our small / Durance deal with that steep or deep.”

name

1. A left tributary of the Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France.