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Definition of patience - 8 dictionary results

pa⋅tience

  [pey-shuhns]
Use patience in a Sentence
–noun
1. the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.
2. an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay: to have patience with a slow learner.
3. quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence: to work with patience.
4. Cards (chiefly British). solitaire (def. 1).
5. Also called patience dock. a European dock, Rumex patientia, of the buckwheat family, whose leaves are often used as a vegetable.
6. Obsolete. leave; permission; sufference.
Origin:
1175–1225; ME pacience < OF < L patientia. See patient, -ence

Synonyms:
1. composure, stability, self-possession; submissiveness, sufferance. 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. 3. indefatigability, persistence, assiduity.

Pa⋅tience

  [pey-shuhns]
–noun
a female given name.

sol⋅i⋅taire

  [sol-i-tair]
–noun
1. Also called patience. any of various games played by one person with one or more regular 52-card packs, part or all of which are usually dealt out according to a given pattern, the object being to arrange the cards in a predetermined manner.
2. a game played by one person alone, as a game played with marbles or pegs on a board having hollows or holes.
3. a precious stone, esp. a diamond, set by itself, as in a ring.
4. any of several American thrushes of the genus Myadestes, having short, broad bills and noted for their beautiful songs.
5. a large extinct flightless bird of the genus Pezophaps, related to the dodo but with a longer neck, smaller bill, and longer legs, that inhabited the Mascarene Islands.
Origin:
1350–1400; ME < F < L sōlitārius solitary
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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pa·tience   (pā'shəns)   
n.  
  1. The capacity, quality, or fact of being patient.
  2. Chiefly British The game solitaire.
Synonyms: These nouns denote the capacity to endure hardship, difficulty, or inconvenience without complaint. Patience emphasizes calmness, self-control, and the willingness or ability to tolerate delay: Our patience will achieve more than our force (Edmund Burke).
Long-suffering is long and patient endurance, as of wrong or provocation: The general, a man not known for docility and long-suffering, flew into a rage.
Resignation implies acceptance of or submission to something trying, as out of despair or necessity: I undertook the job with an air of resignation.
Forbearance denotes restraint, as in retaliating, demanding what is due, or voicing disapproval: "It is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other" (Patrick Henry).
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Patience

Pa"tience\, n. [F. patience, fr. L. patientia. See Patient.]

1. The state or quality of being patient; the power of suffering with fortitude; uncomplaining endurance of evils or wrongs, as toil, pain, poverty, insult, oppression, calamity, etc.

Strenthened with all might, . . . unto all patience and long-suffering. --Col. i. 11.

I must have patience to endure the load. --Shak.

Who hath learned lowliness From his Lord's cradle, patience from his cross. --Keble.

2. The act or power of calmly or contentedly waiting for something due or hoped for; forbearance.

Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. --Matt. xviii. 29.

3. Constancy in labor or application; perseverance.

He learned with patience, and with meekness taught. --Harte.

4. Sufferance; permission. [Obs.] --Hooker.

They stay upon your patience. --Shak.

5. (Bot.) A kind of dock (Rumex Patientia), less common in America than in Europe; monk's rhubarb.

6. (Card Playing) Solitaire.

Syn: Patience, Resignation.

Usage: Patience implies the quietness or self-possession of one's own spirit under sufferings, provocations, etc.; resignation implies submission to the will of another. The Stoic may have patience; the Christian should have both patience and resignation.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : patience
Spanish: paciencia,
German: die Geduld,
Japanese: 我慢強さ
More Translations »

patience 
c.1225, "quality of being patient in suffering," from O.Fr. pacience, from L. patientia "patience, endurance," from patientem (nom. patiens), prp. of pati "to suffer, endure," from PIE base *pei- "to damage, injure, hurt" (see passion).
"Patience n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue." [Ambrose Bierce, "Devil's Dictionary," 1911]
Meaning "constancy in effort" is attested from 1517. Meaning "card game for one person" is from 1816.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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patience

see try one's patience.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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patience

family of card games played by one person. Solitaire was originally called (in various spellings) either patience, as it still is in England, Poland, and Germany, or cabale, as it still is in Scandinavian countries.

Learn more about patience with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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