| / English Dictionary |
IMPATIENCE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A dislike of anything that causes delay
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("impatience" is a kind of...):
ill nature (a disagreeable, irritable, or malevolent disposition)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "impatience"):
intolerance (impatience with annoyances)
Antonym:
patience (good-natured tolerance of delay or incompetence)
Derivation:
impatient (restless or short-tempered under delay or opposition)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A restless desire for change and excitement
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("impatience" is a kind of...):
fidget; fidgetiness; restlessness (a feeling of agitation expressed in continual motion)
Derivation:
impatient ((usually followed by 'to') full of eagerness)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A lack of patience; irritation with anything that causes delay
Synonyms:
impatience; restlessness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("impatience" is a kind of...):
annoyance; botheration; irritation; vexation (the psychological state of being irritated or annoyed)
Derivation:
impatient (restless or short-tempered under delay or opposition)
Context examples:
I was badly in need of a case, and this looks, from the man’s impatience, as if it were of importance.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from showing my impatience.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He was not prone to rashness and precipitate action; and in the bitter hatred between him and Spitz he betrayed no impatience, shunned all offensive acts.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
Still, as I urged our leaving Ireland with such inquietude and impatience, my father thought it best to yield.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Emma accepted it with a very eager hand, with an impatience all alive to know what he would say about it, and not at all checked by hearing that her friend was unmentioned.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Her impatience for this second letter was as well rewarded as impatience generally is.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
If she had felt impatience and regret before—if she had been sorry for what she said, and feared its too strong effect on him—she now felt and feared it all tenfold more.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
All the long November evening I waited, filled with impatience for his return.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“Come then, are you not ready?” said the Brabanter, who had watched with ill-concealed impatience the slow and methodic movements of his antagonist.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The Miss Dashwoods had now been rather more than two months in town, and Marianne's impatience to be gone increased every day.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
