forbearing
forbearing noun: forbearance; restraint. Also the present participle and gerund of forbear.
Noun
forbearing (countable and uncountable, plural forbearings)
- forbearance; restraint
- "As God's forbearing to create more worlds than he has, is no impeachment of his omnipotence: so his forbearing to save as many as he might, is no impeachment of his infinite mercy."1833, John Fletcher, The Works of the Reverend John Fletcher, volume 2, page 443
Adjective
forbearing (comparative more forbearing, superlative most forbearing)
- Characterized by patience and indulgence; long-suffering
- a forbearing temper
- Synonyms:
- longanimous, longminded, indulgent, liberal, tolerant, clement, easygoing, lax, lenient, loose-handed
Also used as
forbearing is also the present participle and gerund of forbear.
Synonyms of forbearing
15 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of forbearing
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | forbearings |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more forbearing |
| superlative | most forbearing |
Origin of forbearing
From Middle English forbering, forberyng, vorberinge, equivalent to forbear + -ing.
From forbear + -ing.
Words formed from forbearing
Questions about forbearing
- What does forbearing mean?
- Forbearing means forbearance; restraint.
- What part of speech is forbearing?
- Forbearing can be a noun or an adjective.
- What is the plural of forbearing?
- The plural of forbearing is forbearings.
Words near forbearing in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: forbearing (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “forbearing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/forbearing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.