forebearance

Noun

forbearance (countable and uncountable, plural forbearances)

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.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

   Antonyms:

   unforbearance

   1. (uncountable) The action of refraining from enforcing something which is due (such as a debt or obligation) or a right which one has; (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: […]1691, [John Locke], Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest, and Raising the Value of Money. […], London: […] Awnsham and John Churchill, […], published 1692, →OCLC, page...
   2. (uncountable) Restraint and tolerance under provocation; patient self-control; indulgence, lenity.
      • 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: […]1645, Jos[eph] Hall, “Sect[ion] IX. Consideration of the Worse Condition of Others.”, in The Remedy of Discontentment: Or, A Treatise of Contentation in whatsoever Condition: […], London: […] J. G....