impatience
(ɪmˈpeɪʃəns)
Forms: 3–6 impacience, (4 in-, 5 inpaciens, ympacience, 6 impacyence), 6– impatience.
[ME. a. OF. impacience (12th c.), -patience, ad. L. impatientia, f. im- (im-2) + patientia the quality of suffering, patience, f. patī to suffer: see -ence.]
The fact or quality of being impatient; want of patience.
The quality was formerly more exactly expressed by impatiency: see -ency.
1. Want of endurance; failure to bear suffering, discomfort, annoyance, etc. with equanimity; irritability, irascibility.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 198 Þe eihteoðe hweolp is Impacience. Þesne hweolp fet hwose nis nout þolemod aȝean alle wowes, & in alle vueles. 1340 Ayenb. 33 Þe oþer poynt is inpacience,..he ne may þolye be paciense, zuo þet non ne dar to him speke of his guode. c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. ii. pr. i. 21 (Cambe. MS.) [Thou] makest fortune wroth and Aspere by thine in-pacience. c 1421 Hoccleve Complaint 177, I full ofte Cawse had of angre and ympacience. 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, iv. vii. 8 Rough deeds of Rage, and sterne Impatience. 1632 Lithgow Trav. x. 479 Men are rather killed with the impatience they have in adversity, then adversity it selfe. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 1044 Rancor and pride, impatience and despite. 1846 Trench Mirac. vi. (1862) 185 Sore as the trial must have been, we detect no signs of impatience on his part. |
b. With of: Incapacity of enduring; intolerance of.
| c 1566 J. Alday tr. Boaystuau's Theat. World M ij, Bread made of chaffe..the which the poore were forced to eate, by impacience and rage of hunger. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 106 Impatience of cold and wet. 1741 Middleton Cicero I. vi. 495 An impatience of discipline. 1830 D'Israeli Chas. I, III. v. 74 His impatience of contradiction unfitted him..for the council-table. 1876 Black Madcap V. xvii, The girl had an impatience of pretence of all kinds. |
† c. With inf. (obs. or arch.): cf. impatient 1 c.
| 1575 Laneham Let. (1871) 6 Hee burst out in a great pang of impatiens to see such vncooth trudging too and fro. 1632 J. Hayward tr. Biondi's Eromena 137 With impatience to be longer bridled. 1683 Brit. Spec. 119 A tedious Impatience to see the horrible Actions of Nero forced St. Paul also to quit Rome. |
2. esp. Intolerance of delay; restlessness of desire or expectation; restless longing or eagerness.
| 1581 Mulcaster Positions 262 Impacience, which can abide no tarying. 1632 J. Hayward tr. Biondi's Eromena 148 Hee with Impatience long'd for the appearance of the new day. 1712 Lady M. W. Montagu Lett. to W. Montagu 9–11 Dec. (1887) I. 79, I wait with impatience for..your return. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) I. 237 We find the uneasiness arising upon a delay of desire vulgarly styled impatience. 1878 M. A. Brown Nadeschda 44, I asked in my impatience Each passing hour a question. |
† b. With of: Impatient desire of. Obs.
(The sense here is practically the opposite of that in 1 b.)
| 1664 G. M. in Marvell's Corr. Wks. 1872–5 II. 104 Tyred with an extream impatience all day of removing from those Wisbies. 1702 Eng. Theophrast. 111 Out of a foolish impatience of being seen at Court. 17.. Hurd (J.), The longer I continued in this scene, the greater was my impatience of retiring from it. |
c. With inf.: cf. impatient 2 b.
| 1880 L. Wallace Ben-Hur vii. iii, A return of impatience to see Him who is ever in my thought. |