patience

To have an immense and unyielding degree of patience and conviction, especially in the face of problems or difficulty. A reference to the biblical figure Job, whose absolute faith in God remained unshaken despite the numerous afflictions set upon himself, his family, and his estate by Satan. This field of work demands that you have the patience of Job. If you're looking for immediate results, you're in the wrong profession. My sister is amazing. She has five unruly children, but she has the patience of Job with every single one of them.

An immense and unyielding degree of patience and conviction, especially in the face of problems or difficulty. A reference to the biblical figure Job, whose absolute faith in God remained unshaken despite the numerous afflictions set upon himself, his family, and his estate by Satan. This field of work requires the patience of Job, so if you're looking for immediate results, you're in the wrong profession. My sister is amazing. She has five unruly children, but she has the patience of Job with every single one of them.

Fig. to have a great deal of patience. Steve has the patience of Job given the way his wife nags him. Dear Martha has the patience of a saint; she raised six children by herself.

to stop being patient with someone or something; to become impatient with someone or something. Please try to be more cooperative. I'm losing patience with you.

annoyed and impatient after being patient for a while. (*Typically: be ~; run ~.) I finally ran out of patience and lost my temper. The boss is finally out of patience with me.

Prov. It is good to be patient. Jill: I wish Mary would hurry up and call me back! Jane: Patience is a virtue. Fred: The doctor has kept us waiting for half an hour! If he doesn't call us into his office pretty soon, I may do something violent. Ellen: Calm down, dear. Patience is a virtue.

to strain someone's patience; to bother someone as if testing the person's patience. (Try means test here.) My loud neighbors are trying my patience today. You really try my patience with all your questions!

to cause someone to become extremely annoyed The judge told the lawyer that he was trying the patience of the court with his delaying tactics.

a lot of patience You need the patience of a saint to be a teacher.

Put one's tolerance to a severe test, cause one to be annoyed, as in Putting these parts together really tries my patience, or Her constant lateness tries our patience. This idiom uses try in the sense of "test," a usage dating from about 1300.