English

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Etymology

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From forbear +‎ -ance.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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forbearance (countable and uncountable, plural forbearances)

  1. Patient self-control; restraint and tolerance under provocation.
    • 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter III, in Wuthering Heights: [], volume II, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, [], →OCLC, pages 63–64:
      Though I would give no information, he discovered, through some of the other servants, both her place of residence, and the existence of the child. Still he didn’t molest her; for which forbearance she might thank his aversion, I suppose.
    • 2010 August 3, David Bennun, Tick Bite Fever[1], Random House, page 109:
      I WOULD HAVE been nine or ten when my mother chased me up a thorn tree with a ceremonial hippo-hide whip. What my crime was, I forget. My mother was, and remains, a woman of exceptional forbearance. I must have done something so obnoxious as to beggar belief.
  2. A refraining from the enforcement of something (as a debt, right, or obligation) that is due.

Synonyms

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Coordinate terms

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Further reading

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