forbearing

forbearing, tolerant, clement, merciful, lenient, indulgent mean disinclined by nature, disposition, or circumstances to be severe or rigorous. The same differences in implications and connotations are observable in their corresponding nouns forbearance, tolerance, clemency, mercifulness, leniency, indulgence and adverbs forbearingly, tolerantly, clemently, mercifully, leniently, indulgently.

Forbearing, forbearance, and forbearingly imply patience under provocation and deliberate abstention from judging harshly, exacting punishment, or seeking vengeance or revenge

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Madame Beck was . . . forbearing with all the world— Brontë

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he thought of old days: of his father's forbearance, his own wilfulness— Meredith

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spoke forbearingly of the lack of facilities that handicapped his work

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Tolerant, tolerance, and tolerantly imply both a freedom from bias or bigotry and a liberal attitude to opinions, especially to religious, philosophical, and political doctrines, other than one's own that keep one from severity or rigor in judging others who hold such opinions or doctrines or from wanting to impose restrictions upon their freedom to think as they will

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[Anatole] France, as usual, professed a very tolerant attitude. One must gratify whatever tastes one has and seek whatever happiness one may be able to find— Krutch

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of all kinds of human energy, art is surely the most free, the least parochial; and demands of us an essential tolerance of all its forms— Galsworthy

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Clement, clemency (see also MERCY), and clemently suggest a temperament or nature that is mild and gentle, especially in judging offenders, and is slow to exact their punishment if a pardon or forgiveness will satisfy the purpose

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a clement ruler

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a judge known far and wide for his clemency

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he was clement whenever he could be clement with safety, and he began to pardon the proscribed— Buchan

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Merciful, mercifulness, and mercifully imply both compassionate and forbearing treatment, especially of those who have offended or of those who merit severity or are defenseless against it

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good my lord, be good to me; your honor is accounted a merciful man— Shak.

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like a perfect nightmare, it was mercifully short— W. J. Locke

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Lenient (see also SOFT), leniency, and leniently differ from clement in suggesting usually softness rather than gentleness of temper, and a relaxation of discipline or rigor

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a too lenient parent

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I would ask you, dearest, to be . . . very lenient on his faults when he is not by— Dickens

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she could not show the slightest leniency towards the romantic impulses of her elder daughter— Bennett

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no matter how leniently you may try to put it, in the end we have ... a struggle between men— Wister

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Indulgent, indulgence, and indulgently usually imply compliancy as well as leniency; they imply, even more strongly than lenient, leniency, and leniently, concessions made out of charity or the exercise of clemency in the treatment of those who offend or who are under one's government or control

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that one congenial friend . . . more indulgent of his shortcomings, and, in all respects, closer and kinder than a brother— Hawthorne

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indulgently dismisses them as basically nice boys—P. D. Whitney

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before her children reached school age. . . her treatment alternated spasmodically between excessive indulgence and petulant severity— Gorer

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Analogous words: gentle, mild (see SOFT): patient, long-suffering, longanimous (see corresponding nouns at PATIENCE)

Antonyms: unrelenting

Contrasted words: implacable, merciless, relentless, *grim: impatient, nervous, restive