stoic

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. One who is seemingly indifferent to or unaffected by joy, grief, pleasure, or pain.
2. n. A member of an originally Greek school of philosophy, founded by Zeno about 308 B.C., believing that God determined everything for the best and that virtue is sufficient for happiness. Its later Roman form advocated the calm acceptance of all occurrences as the unavoidable result of divine will or of the natural order.
3. adj. Seemingly indifferent to or unaffected by pleasure or pain; impassive: "stoic resignation in the face of hunger” ( John F. Kennedy).
4. adj. Of or relating to the Stoics or their philosophy.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. [capitalized] Pertaining to the Stoics, or to their teaching: as, a Stoic philosopher; the Stoic doctrine; hence, manifesting indifference to pleasure or pain (compare stoical).
2. n. [capitalized] A disciple of the philosopher Zeno, who founded a sect about 308 b. c. He taught that men should be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, and submit without complaint to the unavoidable necessity by which all things are governed. The Stoics are proverbially known for the sternness and austerity of their ethical doctrines, and for the influence which their tenets exercised over some of the noblest spirits of antiquity, especially among the Romans. Their system appears to have been an attempt to reconcile a theological pantheism and a materialist psychology with a logic which seeks the foundations of knowledge in the representations or perceptions of the senses, and a morality which claims as its first principle the absolute freedom of the human will. The Stoics teach that whatever is real is material; matter and force are the two ultimate principles; matter is of itself motionless and unformed, though capable of receiving all motions and all forms. Force is the active, moving, and molding principle, and is inseparably joined with matter; the working force in the universe is God, whose existence as a wise thinking being is proved by the beauty and adaptation of the world. The supreme end of life, or the highest good, is virtue—that is, a life conformed to nature, the agreement of human conduct with the all-controlling law of nature, or of the human with the divine will; not contemplation, but action, is the supreme problem for man; virtue is sufficient for happiness, but happiness or pleasure should never be made the end of human endeavor. The wise man alone attains to the complete performance of his duty; he is without passion, although not without feeling; he is not indulgent, but just toward himself and others; he alone is free; he is king and lord, and is inferior in inner worth to no other rational being, not even to Zeus himself.
3. n. Hence A person not easily excited; one who appears or professes to be indifferent to pleasure or pain: one who exhibits calm fortitude.

Wiktionary

1. n. philosophy Proponent of a school of thought, from in 300 BCE up to about the time of Marcus Aurelius, who holds that by cultivating an understanding of the logos, or natural law, one can be free of suffering.
2. n. a person indifferent to pleasure or pain
3. n. a student of Stowe School, England.
4. adj. of or relating to the Stoics or their ideas; see Stoicism
5. adj. not affected by pain or distress
6. adj. not displaying any external signs of being affected by pain or distress

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A disciple of the philosopher Zeno; one of a Greek sect which held that men should be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, and should submit without complaint to unavoidable necessity, by which all things are governed.
2. n. Hence, a person not easily excited; an apathetic person; one who is apparently or professedly indifferent to pleasure or pain.
3. adj. Of or pertaining to the Stoics; resembling the Stoics or their doctrines.
4. adj. Not affected by passion; manifesting indifference to pleasure or pain; especially, bearing pain, suffering, or bad fortune without complaint.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. pertaining to Stoicism or its followers
2. adj. seeming unaffected by pleasure or pain; impassive.
3. n. someone who is seemingly indifferent to emotions
4. n. a member of the ancient Greek school of philosophy founded by Zeno