Pā'tience, n.

(pā'shens), n. [Fr. patience, Pr., Sp., & Pg. paciencia, It. pazienza, Lat. patientia.] 1. The quality of being patient; the suffering of afflictions, pain, toil, calamity, provocation, or other evil, with a calm, unruffled temper; endurance without murmuring or fretfulness. His rage was kindled, and his patience gone. Harte. 2. The act or quality of waiting long for justice or expected good without discontent. Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Matt. xviii. 29. 3. Constancy in labor or exertion; perseverance. He learned with patience, and with meekness taught. Harte.

4. Sufferance; permission. [Obs.] Shak. Hooker.
5. (Bot.) A species of Rumex, or dock. Loudon.

Syn.—PATIENCE, RESIGNATION. Patience refers to the quietness or self-possession of one's own spirit under sufferings, provocations, &c.; resignation, to his submission to the will of another. The Stoic may be patient; the Christian is both patient and resigned. “In medical language, a person oppressed with disease is called a patient, or an involuntary sufferer, and the calmness with which he submits is called patience, that is, the mind yields with tranquillity to the pains and indispositions of the body.” “Resignation superadds to patience a submissive disposition respecting the intelligent cause of our uneasiness. It acknowledges both the power and the right of a superior to afflict.” Cogan.