Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Bearing or enduring pain, difficulty, provocation, or annoyance with calmness.
  • adjective Marked by or exhibiting calm endurance of pain, difficulty, provocation, or annoyance.
  • adjective Tolerant; understanding.
  • adjective Persevering; constant.
  • adjective Capable of calmly awaiting an outcome or result; not hasty or impulsive.
  • adjective Capable of bearing or enduring pain, difficulty, provocation, or annoyance.
  • noun One who receives medical attention, care, or treatment.
  • noun Linguistics A noun or noun phrase identifying one that is acted upon or undergoes an action.
  • noun Obsolete One who suffers.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Enduring; physically able to support or endure; having such a bodily constitution as enables one to endure or to be proof against: followed by of before the thing endured: as, patient of labor or pain; patient of heat or cold.
  • Having or manifesting that temper or east of mind which endures pain, trial, provocation, or the like without murmuring or fretfulness; sustaining afflictions or evils with fortitude, calmness, or submission; full of composure or equanimity; submissive; unrepining: as, a patient person, or a person of patient temper; patient under afflictions.
  • Waiting or expecting with calmness or without discontent; not hasty; not over-eager or impetuous.
  • Persevering; constant in pursuit or exertion; calmly diligent.
  • Capable of bearing; susceptible.
  • Synonyms Uncomplaining, unrepining, long-suffering, brave.
  • Assiduous, indefatigable.
  • noun A person or thing that receives impressions from external agents; one who or that which is passively affected: opposed to agent.
  • noun A sufferer.
  • noun Specifically A sufferer under bodily indisposition undergoing medical treatment: commonly used as a correlative to physician or nurse.
  • noun Agent and patient. See agent.
  • Reflexively, to compose (one's self); be patient.
  • Receiving impressions; being the subject of external agents; passive.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To compose, to calm.
  • noun One who, or that which, is passively affected; a passive recipient.
  • noun A person under medical or surgical treatment; -- correlative to physician or nurse.
  • noun a patient who receives lodging and food, as treatment, in a hospital or an infirmary.
  • noun one who receives advice and medicine, or treatment, from an infirmary.
  • adjective Having the quality of enduring; physically able to suffer or bear.
  • adjective Undergoing pains, trials, or the like, without murmuring or fretfulness; bearing up with equanimity against trouble; long-suffering.
  • adjective Constant in pursuit or exertion; persevering; calmly diligent.
  • adjective Expectant with calmness, or without discontent; not hasty; not overeager; composed.
  • adjective Forbearing; long-suffering.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective content to wait if necessary; not losing one's temper while waiting; not bothered with having to wait; not unwilling to wait
  • noun A person or animal who receives treatment from a doctor or other medically educated person.
  • noun linguistics, grammar The noun or noun phrase that is semantically on the receiving end of a verb's action.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a person who requires medical care
  • adjective enduring trying circumstances with even temper or characterized by such endurance
  • noun the semantic role of an entity that is not the agent but is directly involved in or affected by the happening denoted by the verb in the clause

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English pacient, from Old French, from Latin patiēns, patient-, present participle of patī, to endure; see pē(i)- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin patiens, present participle of pati ("to suffer, endure"); akin to Greek πάσχειν (paskhein, "to suffer"); see pathos, from Proto-Indo-European *pē(i)- "to hurt" [Pokorny pē(i)- 792].

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Examples

  • I have to say that two female neurosurgeons talking about their patient *as their patient* rather than as a man would not be a fail to me, although I'm not sure whether I'm saying it wouldn't fail the rule or just wouldn't in general bother me.

    Something besides a man Michael May 2008

  • She was being patient -- _patient_, poor lamb, and only God himself knew how she cried when she was left alone in her white bed, the door closed between her and all the house.

    Robin Frances Hodgson Burnett 1886

  • "One cannot understand how a compounder can diagnose and administer an injection to a patient& It appears that Sangupani complained to the compounder that he was having chest pain and the compounder keeping in mind that on earlier occasions the doctor prescribed Deriphyllin injection, administered it to the patient.

    The Times of India 2009

  • The term patient care episode represents the sum of two numbers: resident hospitalized patients at the beginning of the year or those on the active role of outpatient clinics; and admissions during the year.

    The Mad Among Us Gerald N. Grob 1994

  • The term patient care episode represents the sum of two numbers: resident hospitalized patients at the beginning of the year or those on the active role of outpatient clinics; and admissions during the year.

    The Mad Among Us Gerald N. Grob 1994

  • The title patient produced 16 personalities before she was through, and became a national phenomenon.

    Multiple Personality Deception 2011

  • Obviously, the split-brain patient is not acting normally, however.

    Backing Into an Evidentiary Standard for ID 2007

  • Obviously, the split-brain patient is not acting normally, however.

    Backing Into an Evidentiary Standard for ID 2007

  • The determining factor in deciding whether to try a new approach with a patient is the risk/benefit equation.

    Mark Hyman, MD: Is There a Cure for Autoimmune Disease? MD Mark Hyman 2010

  • The determining factor in deciding whether to try a new approach with a patient is the risk/benefit equation.

    Mark Hyman, MD: Is There a Cure for Autoimmune Disease? MD Mark Hyman 2010

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