patience
1 Americannoun
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the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.
- Synonyms:
- sufferance, submissiveness, self-possession, stability, composure
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an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay.
to have patience with a slow learner.
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quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence.
to work with patience.
- Synonyms:
- assiduity, persistence, indefatigability
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Cards (chiefly British). solitaire.
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Also called patience dock. a European dock, Rumex patientia, of the buckwheat family, whose leaves are often used as a vegetable.
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Obsolete. leave; permission; sufference.
noun
noun
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tolerant and even-tempered perseverance
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the capacity for calmly enduring pain, trying situations, etc
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US equivalent: solitaire. any of various card games for one player only, in which the cards may be laid out in various combinations as the player tries to use up the whole pack
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obsolete permission; sufferance
Related Words
Patience, endurance, fortitude, stoicism imply qualities of calmness, stability, and persistent courage in trying circumstances. Patience may denote calm, self-possessed, and unrepining bearing of pain, misfortune, annoyance, or delay; or painstaking and untiring industry or (less often) application in the doing of somehing: to bear afflictions with patience. Endurance denotes the ability to bear exertion, hardship, or suffering (without implication of moral qualities required or shown): Running in a marathon requires great endurance. Fortitude implies not only patience but courage and strength of character in the midst of pain, affliction, or hardship: to show fortitude in adversity. Stoicism is calm fortitude, with such repression of emotion as to seem almost like indifference to pleasure or pain: The American Indians were noted for stoicism under torture.
Other Word Forms
- superpatience noun
Etymology
Origin of patience
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English pacience, from Old French, from Latin patientia. See patient, -ence
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He laboured under the fatal impression that he had time to deliver his vision and that he deserved patience.
From BBC
But between these quarterly bouts of domestic competence lies a slack, unromantic middle ground—weeknights when my freezer reserves have dwindled and my patience along with them.
From Salon
On this occasion, he survived Australian attempts to play on his patience, albeit with a touch of fortune.
From BBC
Free markets are efficient at allocation but terrible at strategic patience.
From MarketWatch
No equipment is needed - though a clear sky and a lot of patience are helpful.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
