- continue
- continue, last, endure, abide, persist are comparable when meaning to remain indefinitely in existence or in a given condition or course.Continue distinctively refers to the process and stresses its lack of an end rather than the duration of or the qualities involved in that process. Often, in addition, it suggests an unbroken course{
what a man is as an end perishes when he dies; what he produces as a means continues to the end of time— Russell
}{the illusion continues that civilization can somehow be reconciled with atomic war— Fleming
}Last especially in its derivative lasting (see LASTING) when unqualified usually stresses length of existence exceeding what is normal or expected{the anger of slow, mild, loving people has a lasting quality— Deland
}When qualified, last often loses this distinctive implication{the work that Michelangelo did complete has lasted well— Barr
}{the refrigerator is guaranteed to last five years
}{the tire lasted only three months
}Endure adds to last the implication of resistance, especially to destructive forces or agencies{for living things, who suffer pain, may not endure till time can bring them ease— Lowell
}{an art . . . which endured . . . until man changed his attitude toward the universe— Henry Adams
}Abide and its derivative abiding imply stability or constancy, especially in opposition to mutability or impermanence{though much is taken, much abides— Tennyson
}{Notwithstanding the countless features of London's living which were abiding, the changes made themselves felt—J. M. Brown
}Persist adds to continue the implication of outlasting the appointed or normal time; it often also connotes recurrence, especially in sporadic instances{an attitude towards life, which . . . persists, with many changes but no breaks, till the closing of the Athenian lecture rooms by Justinian— Inge
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
