Adjacent Words

Impatience definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

IMPA'TIENCE, n. [L. impatientia, from impatiens; in and patior, to suffer.] Uneasiness under pain or suffering; the not enduring pain with composure; restlessness occasioned by suffering positive evil, or the absence of expected good. Impatience is not rage, nor absolute inability to bear pain; but it implies want of fortitude, or of its exercise. It usually springs from irritability of temper.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a lack of patience; irritation with anything that causes delay [syn: restlessness, impatience]
2: a restless desire for change and excitement
3: a dislike of anything that causes delay [ant: forbearance, longanimity, patience]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 13th century the quality or state of being impatient

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Impatience Im*pa"tiencen. [OE. impacience, F. impatience, fr. L. impatientia.] The quality of being impatient; want of endurance of pain, suffering, opposition, or delay; eagerness for change, or for something expected; restlessness; chafing of spirit; fretfulness; passion; as, the impatience of a child or an invalid. I then, . . . Out of my grief and my impatience, Answered neglectingly. --Shak. With huge impatience he inly swelt More for great sorrow that he could not pass, Than for the burning torment which he felt. --Spenser.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

see impatient

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Disquietude, restlessness, uneasiness. 2. Vehemence, impetuosity, haste, eagerness, precipitation. 3. Lack of forbearance, want of patience, irritability, irritableness, heat, violence of temper.

Moby Thesaurus

alacrity, animation, anxiety, anxiousness, appetite, avidity, avidness, breathless impatience, cheerful readiness, eagerness, elan, forwardness, gust, gusto, haste, hastiness, impetuosity, impetuousness, impulsiveness, keen desire, keenness, life, liveliness, overhastiness, precipitance, precipitancy, precipitateness, precipitation, promptness, quickness, rashness, readiness, recklessness, spirit, suddenness, verve, vitality, vivacity, zest, zestfulness