patience

[ pey-shuhns ]
/ ˈpeɪ ʃəns /

noun

the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.
an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay: to have patience with a slow learner.
quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence: to work with patience.
Cards (chiefly British ). solitaire(def 1).
Also called patience dock. a European dock, Rumex patientia, of the buckwheat family, whose leaves are often used as a vegetable.
Obsolete. leave; permission; sufference.

Origin of patience

1175–1225; Middle English pacience < Old French < Latin patientia. See patient, -ence

SYNONYMS FOR patience

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.

OTHER WORDS FROM patience

su·per·pa·tience, noun

Words nearby patience

Definition for patience (2 of 2)

Patience
[ pey-shuh ns ]
/ ˈpeɪ ʃəns /

noun

a female given name.

Example sentences from the Web for patience

British Dictionary definitions for patience

patience
/ (ˈpeɪʃəns) /

noun

tolerant and even-tempered perseverance
the capacity for calmly enduring pain, trying situations, etc
mainly British 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 US equivalent: solitaire
obsolete permission; sufferance

Word Origin for patience

C13: via Old French from Latin patientia endurance, from patī to suffer

Idioms and Phrases with patience

patience

see try one's patience.