FORBEARANCE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does forbearance mean? 

• FORBEARANCE (noun)
  The noun FORBEARANCE has 2 senses:

1. good-natured tolerance of delay or incompetence

2. a delay in enforcing rights or claims or privileges; refraining from acting

  Familiarity information: FORBEARANCE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FORBEARANCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Good-natured tolerance of delay or incompetence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

forbearance; longanimity; patience

Hypernyms ("forbearance" is a kind of...):

good nature (a cheerful, obliging disposition)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A delay in enforcing rights or claims or privileges; refraining from acting

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

his forbearance to reply was alarming

Hypernyms ("forbearance" is a kind of...):

delay; holdup (the act of delaying; inactivity resulting in something being put off until a later time)

Derivation:

forbear (resist doing something)

 Context examples 

It had a high claim to forbearance.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

He pressed for the strictest forbearance and silence towards their niece; she not only promised, but did observe it.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Elinor wished that the same forbearance could have extended towards herself, but that was impossible, and she was obliged to listen day after day to the indignation of them all.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

To Ruth's amazement, Martin was not immediately crushed, and that the professor replied in the way he did struck her as forbearance for Martin's youth.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Elizabeth received them with all the forbearance of civility, and, at the request of the gentlemen, remained at the instrument till her ladyship's carriage was ready to take them all home.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I believe you equal to every important exertion, and to every domestic forbearance, so long as—if I may be allowed the expression—so long as you have an object.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

I heard her with wonder: I could not comprehend this doctrine of endurance; and still less could I understand or sympathise with the forbearance she expressed for her chastiser.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

You are too much alike and too fond of freedom, not to mention hot tempers and strong wills, to get on happily together, in a relation which needs infinite patience and forbearance, as well as love.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

They spoke, therefore, of Mrs. Churchill's death with mutual forbearance.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The forbearance of her family on a point, respecting which she could be in no doubt of their wishes, might be their surest means of forwarding it.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)