patient

adjective

1. 1

   Willing to wait if necessary; not losing one's temper while waiting.

   Be patient: your friends will arrive in a few hours.

   Asari Cultural VI: Due to our lifespan-sometimes reaching 1,000 years of age-we are patient in our decisions, and prefer long-term solutions over short-term gains.

2. 2

   Constant in pursuit or exertion; persevering; calmly diligent.

   patient endeavour

   a patient wait

   patient analysis

   c. 1692, Sir Isaac Newton, letter to Dr. Richard Bentley Whatever I have done […] is due to […] patient thought.

3. 3

   obsoletePhysically able to suffer or bear.

   To this outward structure was joined that strength of constitution, patient of severest toil and hardship; insomuch that for the most part of his life, in the fiercest extremity of cold, he took no other advantage of a fire, than at the greatest distance that he could, to look upon it.

noun

1. 1

   A person or animal that receives health care from a doctor, nurse, dentist, allied health practitioner, or other person educated in health care.

   Hello, is your practice currently accepting new patients? I'd like to become a patient there if so.

   At the veterinary clinic, caring for the patients successfully and dealing with the patients’ owners successfully are both necessary skills.

   The slightest effort made the patient cough. He would stand leaning on a stick and holding a hand to his side, and when the paroxysm had passed it left him shaking.

   An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic[…]real kidneys[…]. But they are nothing like as efficient, and can cause bleeding, clotting and infection—not to mention inconvenience for patients, who typically need to be hooked up to one three times a week for hours at a time.

2. 2

   The noun or noun phrase that is semantically on the receiving end of a verb's action.

   The subject of a passive verb is usually a patient.

   The number of a first or second person participant is generally marked for both agent and patient in all aspects.

   Since we have argued that the absolutive argument in Dyirbal is the grammatical subject of its clause, we must conclude that in the antipassive construction the agent replaces the patient as grammatical subject.

3. 3

   One who, or that which, is passively affected; a passive recipient.

   Malice is a passion so impetuous and precipitate, that it often involves the agent and the patient.

   For it seems clear that the subject of change is the changed, i.e. the patient -- on one proviso. the proviso is that there be an agent or changer.

   How does a person change from a patient to an agent in shaping and living a course of life?

   According to the tradition, when an agent acts on a patient, the change is located in the patient. If the patient reacts on the agent, then the agent is a patient in the new relation.

Forms

plural

patients

comparative

more patient

superlative

most patient