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impatient - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Old French impacient (modern French impatient), from Latin impatiēns. By surface analysis, im- +‎ patient.

  • IPA(key): /ɪmˈpeɪʃənt/
  • Hyphenation: im‧pa‧tient

impatient (comparative more impatient, superlative most impatient)

  1. Restless, short of temper, and intolerant of delays.

    She dances when she becomes impatient.

  2. Anxious and eager, especially to begin or have something.
    • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author’s Great Love of His Native Country. []”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. [] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: [] Benj[amin] Motte, [], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 258:

      For, if (ſaid he) you throw among five Yahoos as much Food as would be ſufficient for fifty, they will, inſtead of eating peaceably, fall together by the ears, each ſingle one impatient to have all to itſelf; []

  3. (obsolete) Not to be borne; unendurable.
  4. Prompted by, or exhibiting, impatience.

    impatient speeches or replies

restless and intolerant of delays

anxious and eager

Borrowed from Latin impatientem. Morphologically analyzable as im- +‎ patient.

impatient (feminine impatiente, masculine plural impatients, feminine plural impatientes)

  1. impatient

impatient m (plural impatients, feminine impatiente)

  1. impatient person