forbearance

noun

1. (uncountable)The action of forbearing (“abstaining or refraining from doing something”); (countable) an instance of this.

   “Tut, tut, here is a mannerly forbearance: / The truth appeares ſo naked on my ſide, / That any purblind eye may find it out.”

   “Then true nobleſſe vvould / Learne him forbearance from ſo foule a vvrong, / VVhat ſubject can giue ſentence on his King: […]”

   “[…] Death denounc't that day, / VVhich he preſumes already vain and void, / Becauſe not yet inflicted, as he fear'd, / By ſome immediate ſtroak; but ſoon ſhall find / Forbearance no acquittance ere day end.”

   “Polyphilus […] at the univerſity vvas diſtinguiſhed equally for his ſucceſsful progress, […] vvithout any ſtrict confinement to hours of ſtudy, or remarkable forbearance of the common amuſements of young men.”

   “Yet apprehenſive that his forbearance to obey, vvould be more alarming, he repeated in a faltering and lovv voice the follovving lines: […]”

2. (uncountable)The action of forbearing (“abstaining or refraining from doing something”); (countable) an instance of this.

   “It is neceſſary that there ſhould be a ſtated Rate of Intereſt, that in Debts and Forbearances, vvhere Contract has not ſetled it betvveen the Parties, the Lavv might give a Rule, and Courts of Judicature might knovv vvhat Damages to allovv: […]”

3. (uncountable)The action of forbearing (“abstaining or refraining from doing something”); (countable) an instance of this.

   “If I have little, others have leſſe; If I feele paine, ſome others, torture: If their ſufferings be juſt, my forbearances are mercifull; my proviſions, to theirs liberall: […]”

   “"Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"”

   “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.”

   “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.”