tolerantadj.n.

1784 J. 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 E. Burke Let. to H. Langrishe in Wks. VI. 318 A tolerant government ought not to be too scrupulous in its investigations.

1796 J. Morse Amer. Universal Geogr. (new ed.) 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 E. Bulwer-Lytton Alice I. i. xi. 101 His own early errors made him tolerant to the faults of others.

1841 T. B. Macaulay in W. B. Scoones Four Cent. Eng. Lett. (1880) 537 You were less tolerant than myself of little mannerisms.

1875 H. E. Manning Internal Mission of Holy Ghost ix. 237 Though we are to be tolerant towards the persons of heretics, we are intolerant of the heresies themselves.

1864 J. H. Newman Apologia ii. 169 How far the Articles were tolerant of a Catholic, or even of a Roman interpretation.

1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. 9 748 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 New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon Tolerant, withstanding the use of a drug without injury.

1898 G. Pinchot Adirondack Spruce 5 A selection forest is usually composed of species tolerant of shade.

1898 G. Pinchot Adirondack Spruce 6 Spruce, Hemlock, Balsam, the Maples [etc.] are tolerant.

1929 J. E. Weaver & F. E. Clements Plant Ecol. xiii. 321 Tolerant species..retain their branches.

1943 D. V. Baxter Pathol. Forest Pract. viii. 478 Certain woody species tolerant of wet soil.

1979 Austral. Jrnl. Bot. 27 531 Coleochloa setifera is a desiccation-tolerant sedge which becomes yellow during drying.

1980 Spurr & Barnes Forest Ecol. (ed. 3) xiv. 380 A forest tree that can survive and prosper under a forest canopy is said to be tolerant.

1904 E. R. Lankester in Q. Rev. July 128 A more precise nomenclature would describe the attacked organism..as ‘tolerant’, for it tolerates the presence and multiplication of the parasite without suffering by it.

1951 R. H. Painter Insect Resistance in Plant Crops ii. 59 Corn strains that are tolerant to chinch bug infestation under the moisture conditions of Illinois may not show as much tolerance under drier conditions in Kansas.

1976 Gibbs & Harrison Plant Virology xv. 225/2 In the western U.S.A., where beet curly top virus is widespread, the sugar-beet industry has been saved by introducing tolerant cultivars.

1951 Heredity V. 396 Not all dizygotic twins are completely tolerant to grafts of each other's skin.

1969 R. S. Weiser et al. Fund. Immunol. xviii. 227 The F₁ hybrid is an example of an allogeneic recipient which for genetic reasons is immunologically tolerant of parental grafts.