patience

[pey-shuh ns] /ˈpeɪ ʃəns/
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; Middle English pacience < Old French < Latin patientia. See patient, -ence
Related forms
superpatience, noun
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.

Patience

[pey-shuh ns] /ˈpeɪ ʃəns/
noun
1.
a female given name.
Examples from the web for patience
  • She was remarkable for her humility and detachment, her obedience and patience.
  • It is affectionate with family members and is good with children, showing patience.
  • This term is based on a similar term used in the card game of patience in the uk.
British Dictionary definitions for patience

patience

/ˈpeɪʃəns/
noun
1.
tolerant and even-tempered perseverance
2.
the capacity for calmly enduring pain, trying situations, etc
3.
(mainly Brit) 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
4.
(obsolete) permission; sufferance
Word Origin
C13: via Old French from Latin patientia endurance, from patī to suffer
Word Origin and History for patience
n.

c.1200, "quality of being patient in suffering," from Old French pacience "patience; sufferance, permission" (12c.) and directly from Latin patientia "patience, endurance, submission; quality of suffering," from patientem (nominative patiens), present participle of pati "to suffer, endure," from PIE root *pe(i)- "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 1510s. Meaning "card game for one person" is from 1816.

Idioms and Phrases with patience

patience

see: try one's patience
Encyclopedia Article for 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.

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