try one's patience

Idioms  

1. Put one's tolerance to a severe test, cause one to be annoyed, as in Putting these parts together really tries my patience, or Her constant lateness tries our patience. This idiom uses try in the sense of “test,” a usage dating from about 1300.

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Example Sentences

Still, such characters can also try one’s patience, making a series difficult to watch, no matter how good it is.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 10, 2023

Some parties would waste the time, and try one's patience by having amongst them laggards, to whom explanations already given had to be repeated.

From The Parish Clerk by Ditchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)

In the third place, there are special annoyances in the service of a public, which includes always some inconsiderate and many ignorant persons, and these will frequently try one's patience, however angelic and forbearing.

From A Book for All Readers An Aid to the Collection, Use, and Preservation of Books and the Formation of Public and Private Libraries by Spofford, Ainsworth Rand

However, the caravan ponies do try one's patience to the limit.

From Camps and Trails in China A Narrative of Exploration, Adventure, and Sport in Little-Known China by Andrews, Roy Chapman

Surely this is enough to try one's patience.

From The History of the Great Irish Famine of 1847 (3rd ed.) (1902) With Notices of Earlier Irish Famines by O'Rourke, John

Related Words

• annoy
• bother
• disturb
• exasperate
• gall
• inflame
• irk
• irritate
• peeve
• provoke
• roil
• vex