Definitions

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

  • noun One who is seemingly indifferent to or unaffected by joy, grief, pleasure, or pain.
  • noun A member of an originally Greek school of philosophy, founded by Zeno of Citium about 308 BC, believing that God determined everything for the best and that virtue is sufficient for happiness. Its later Roman form advocated the calm acceptance of all occurrences as the unavoidable result of divine will or of the natural order.
  • adjective Seemingly indifferent to or unaffected by pleasure or pain; impassive.
  • adjective Of or relating to the Stoics or their philosophy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • [capitalized] Pertaining to the Stoics, or to their teaching: as, a Stoic philosopher; the Stoic doctrine; hence, manifesting indifference to pleasure or pain (compare stoical).
  • noun [capitalized] A disciple of the philosopher Zeno, who founded a sect about 308 b. c.
  • noun Hence A person not easily excited; one who appears or professes to be indifferent to pleasure or pain: one who exhibits calm fortitude.

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

  • adjective Of or pertaining to the Stoics; resembling the Stoics or their doctrines.
  • adjective Not affected by passion; manifesting indifference to pleasure or pain; especially, bearing pain, suffering, or bad fortune without complaint.
  • noun A disciple of the philosopher Zeno; one of a Greek sect which held that men should be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, and should submit without complaint to unavoidable necessity, by which all things are governed.
  • noun Hence, a person not easily excited; an apathetic person; one who is apparently or professedly indifferent to pleasure or pain.
  • noun See The Porch, under Porch.

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

  • noun philosophy Proponent of a school of thought, from in 300 BCE up to about the time of Marcus Aurelius, who holds that by cultivating an understanding of the logos, or natural law, one can be free of suffering.
  • noun a person indifferent to pleasure or pain
  • noun a student of Stowe School, England.
  • adjective of or relating to the Stoics or their ideas; see Stoicism
  • adjective not affected by pain or distress
  • adjective not displaying any external signs of being affected by pain or distress

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

  • adjective pertaining to Stoicism or its followers
  • adjective seeming unaffected by pleasure or pain; impassive
  • noun someone who is seemingly indifferent to emotions
  • noun a member of the ancient Greek school of philosophy founded by Zeno

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English Stoic, a Stoic, from Latin Stōicus, from Greek Stōikos, from stoā (poikilē), (Painted) Porch, where Zeno taught; see stā- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin stoicus, from Ancient Greek Στωϊκός (Stōikos), from Ποικίλη Στοά (Poikilē Stoa, "painted portico"), the portico in Athens where Zeno was teaching.

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Examples

  • Mrs. Tully, her face set in stoic resignation, was silent.

    CHAPTER XVI 2010

  • The cackles were the kind that tapdanced up my spine, and yet I had to remain stoic and "manly" because I was watching the film with a half-dozen girls.

    Archive 2010-07-01 2010

  • What do this republicans rightful and accepted response should be; that Obama remain stoic and keep sitting in a chair reading My Pet Goat to a bunch of school kids after he was inform of the purported attack.

    Obama criticized for terror response 2009

  • The cackles were the kind that tapdanced up my spine, and yet I had to remain stoic and "manly" because I was watching the film with a half-dozen girls.

    Meme, Myself, & I: My Top 10 Willy Inducing Moments 2010

  • And, in terms of the mood, I just ran into one of John McCain's senior advisers coming out here who used the word stoic to describe the atmosphere inside the McCain campaign.

    CNN Transcript Nov 4, 2008 2008

  • That night it's obvious to Jake that Skeet, usually stoic, is deeply upset.

    The Crowning Circle: Summary and book reviews of The Crowning Circle by J.R. Lankford. 2001

  • One of the Yiddish pupils replied, "A stoic is the boid that brings the babies."

    Jazz; Whence? Why? Whither? 1924

  • Mrs. Tully, her face set in stoic resignation, was silent.

    The Little Lady of the Big House, by Jack London 1916

  • With that summing up of the matter, he seemed to gain stoic energy.

    Lady Bridget in the Never-Never Land 1915

  • He was pretty tight-lipped, answered in short, stoic answers early on, but warmed up as the presser went on and talked for 29 minutes about his expectations for the season (just stay healthy and let the rest take care of itself), the offseason pickups (he likes them), the topic that never goes away of 'The pure point guard.' (his retort, before going on a 3-minute tear, "What is a pure point guard?").

    Bullets Forever 2009

Comments

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  • "But virtuous as it may be to stay in bed, there are those who would argue to the contrary. If I were a Stoic, I would leap from my hard bed and run naked into a nearby mountain stream. I would be bursting with vigor and manliness. I would be valiant. I would be an example of moral rectitude. However, when I consider, from the warmth of my early-morning bed, I come to the conclusion that I may not really be a Stoic." - 'On Getting Out Of Bed, A Philosophical Approach', internet, Dec 2007.

    December 16, 2007