Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The quality or condition of being impatient.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The state or character of lacking patience; restlessness under existing conditions; eager desire for relief or change.
- n. Intolerance of anything that thwarts or hinders; passionate vehemence; in a milder sense, quickness of temper; touchiness.
Wiktionary
- n. the quality of being impatient
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The quality of being impatient; lack of endurance of pain, suffering, opposition, or delay; eagerness for change, or for something expected; restlessness; chafing of spirit; fretfulness; passion.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a restless desire for change and excitement
- n. a dislike of anything that causes delay
- n. a lack of patience; irritation with anything that causes delay
Examples
“Nor do I think that this impatience is necessarily "in step" with right-wing cultural values.”
“What Halberstam and Berube share, ultimately, is a plain impatience with if not disdain for trifling old literature.”
“For long-term investors, this was an opportunity to "exploit the short-term impatience," says David Herro , portfolio manager for Oakmark International and Oakmark International Small Cap .”
“So we find a certain impatience and restlessness in their agenda.”
“Point Two: This conservative impatience is bred solely out of ignorant fear, misstrust, and mistruths.”
“Obama needs to work harder to connect with moderates, even if their impatience is premature.”
Newsweek: Better Listen to Bill Clinton’s Good on Green Jobs.
“Maybe it was to show that my impatience is something I need to come to terms with.”
“But I can understand a certain impatience with reading the millionth entry in the log of the USS Mary Sue (or Ye Unpredictably Capitalized Chonicles of Mary Sue, or whatever).”
“I need something good to read & my impatience is starting to make an appearance!”
“One, maybe it's just me -- impatience is a subjective experience.”
Lists
‘impatience’ hasn't been added to any lists yet.
chained_bear "Impatience has little to do with the notes themselves. Instead, it is a fight with time. Faced with a new piece of music, an unknown city, a difficult moment in your life, you want to leap over the anxiety and confusion, to be ahead of where you are. But most of the time the solutions you achieve in impatience are narrow and awkward. You establish your first response as a habit, then have to spend all your time trying to correct it, instead of waiting, listening, and learning more."
—Glenn Kurtz, Practicing: A Musician's Return to Music (New York: Vintage Books, 2007), 101 Nov 3, 2008