Bearing provocation or trial with patience.
1535. Coverdale, Exod. xxxiv. 6. Lorde Lorde, God, mercifull and gracious, and longe sufferinge.
1611. Bible, 2 Pet. iii. 9. The Lorde … is long-suffring to vs-ward.
1687. Dryden, Hind & P., III. 276. And grant ungrateful friends a lengthened space To implore the remnants of long-suffering grace.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, I. 269. They showed themselves … as brave and skilful in war as they had been mild and long-suffering in peace.
1860. Pusey, Min. Proph., 374. God can be long-suffering, because He can, whenever He sees good, punish.
1900. Speaker, 8 Sept., 615/1. Henry the Sixth’s longsuffering Queen rested here awhile.
Hence Longsufferingly adv.
1891. ‘Leslie Keith,’ Lost Illusion, I. iii. 54. Priscilla bore for the most part long-sufferingly with this mild pursuit of science.
