a. (sb.) [a. F. tolérant (16th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), pr. pple. of tolérer to TOLERATE, ad. L. tolerānt-em, pr. pple. of tolerāre.] Disposed or inclined to tolerate or bear with something; practising or favuring toleration.
1784. Jos. White, Bampton Lect., iii. 145. His [Gibbon’s] eagerness to throw a veil over the deformities of the Heathen theology, to decorate with all the splendor of panegyric the tolerant spirit of its votaries.
1792. Burke, Lett. to Sir H. Langrishe, Wks. VI. 318. A tolerant government ought not to be too scrupulous in its investigations.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 429. The religion of this Commonwealth [Massachusetts] is established … on a most liberal and tolerant plan. All persons, of whatever religious profession or sentiments, may worship God agreeably to the dictates of their own consciences, unmolested.
1838. Lytton, Alice, I. xi. His own early errors made him tolerant to the faults of others.
1841. Macaulay, in Four C. Eng. Lett. (1880), 537. You were less tolerant than myself of little mannerisms.
1875. Manning, Mission H. Ghost, ix. 237. Though we are to be tolerant towards the persons of heretics, we are intolerant of the heresies themselves.
b. transf. Of a thing: Capable of bearing or sustaining. Const. of.
1864. J. H. Newman, Apol., ii. 169. How far the Articles were tolerant of a Catholic, or even of a Roman interpretation.
c. Phys. Able to endure the action of a drug, an irritant, etc., without being affected; capable of resisting. Const. of. Cf. TOLERANCE 1 b.
1879. St. George’s Hosp. Rep., IX. 748. Chrysophanic acid having at first given rise to irritation, I diluted it…. The skin in two or three weeks became tolerant of it.
1881. Encycl. Brit., XIII. 210/2. The amount [of ipecacuanha] required to produce its effect varies considerably, children as a rule being more tolerant than adults.
1899. Syd. Soc. Lex., Tolerant, withstanding the use of a drug without injury.
d. Forestry. Capable of enduring shade. Cf. TOLERANCE 1 c. U.S.
1898. Pinchot, Adirondack Spruce, 5. A selection forest is usually composed of species tolerant of shade. Ibid., 6. Spruce, Hemlock, Balsam, the Maples [etc.] are tolerant.
B. sb. (subst. use of the adj.: so in Fr.) One who tolerates opinions or practices different from his own; one free from bigotry; a tolerationist.
1780. J. Brown, Lett. on Toleration, i. (1803), 35. I dare defy all the Tolerants on earth, to point out one thing … competent to masters and parents [etc.].
1872. Morley, Voltaire, iii. 144. Henry the Fourth was a hero with Voltaire, for no better reason than that he was the first great tolerant, the earliest historic indifferent.
