Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Tolerance and restraint in the face of provocation; patience.
  • noun Law The act of giving a debtor more time to pay rather than immediately enforcing a debt that is due.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act or state of forbearing; the cessation or intermission of an act commenced, or a refraining from beginning an act.
  • noun Command of temper; restraint of passions; long-suffering; indulgence toward an offender or injurer; lenity.
  • noun In law, an abstaining from the enforcement of a right; specifically, a creditor's giving of indulgence after the day originally fixed for payment: as, the loan or forbearance of money.
  • noun A withdrawing; a keeping aloof.
  • noun Synonyms Abstinence, refraining.
  • noun Patience, indulgence, mildness.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of forbearing or waiting; the exercise of patience.
  • noun The quality of being forbearing; indulgence toward offenders or enemies; long-suffering.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Restraint under provocation.
  • noun A refraining from the enforcement of something (as a debt, right, or obligation) that is due.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a delay in enforcing rights or claims or privileges; refraining from acting
  • noun good-natured tolerance of delay or incompetence

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From forbear +‎ -ance.

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Examples

  • _Which_, retaining its office as connective, may as an adjective accompany its noun; as, I craved his forbearance a little longer, _which forbearance_ he allowed me.] +A _Personal Pronoun_ is a pronoun that by its form denotes the speaker, the one spoken to, or the one spoken of+.

    Higher Lessons in English A work on english grammar and composition Brainerd Kellogg

  • Sometimes begging by good customers can win forbearance, but usually we are held to the written terms of the contract no matter how buried or convoluted the clause in question may be.

    Dean Baker: Bankers Running Wild: Foreclosure Flurry in Florida Dean Baker 2010

  • Sometimes begging by good customers can win forbearance, but usually we are held to the written terms of the contract no matter how buried or convoluted the clause in question may be.

    Dean Baker: Bankers Running Wild: Foreclosure Flurry in Florida Dean Baker 2010

  • We have bought into instant gratification for so long the concept of patience and forbearance is moribund.

    Poll: Obama approval rating dips under 60 percent 2009

  • Sometimes begging by good customers can win forbearance, but usually we are held to the written terms of the contract no matter how buried or convoluted the clause in question may be.

    Dean Baker: Bankers Running Wild: Foreclosure Flurry in Florida Dean Baker 2010

  • It's important to continue making payments until your request for deferment or forbearance is granted.

    Grads neck-deep in debt have options 2006

  • The guards, too, treated the common criminals with a certain forbearance, even when they had to handle them roughly.

    Nineteen Eighty-Four 1949

  • Great self-respect is as often manifested in forbearance as in resentment, said Herbert, soothingly.

    The Hidden Hand 1888

  • Northern speakers and writers; but the South, now that nothing can be gained by forbearance, is taking up the anti-English cry, and

    London: Saturday, December 26, 1863 1863

  • That complete dependence on each other, which insures habits of confidence and forbearance, is more easily acquired while the first dream of love lasts; and tastes and tempers amalgamate better in the end when there are no witnesses to observe that they do not quite fit at first.

    The Semi-Attached Couple 1860

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