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n said of a habit, desire, etc.: to give free course to; to give one's self up to; as, to indulge sloth, pride, selfishness, or inclinations; (b) when said of a person: to yield to the desire of; to gratify by compliance; to humor; to withhold restraint from; as, to indulge children in their caprices or willfulness; to…

Indulgence. [R.] Wood.

The act of indulging or humoring; the quality of being indulgent; forbearance of restrain or control. If I were a judge, that word indulgence should never issue from my lips. Tooke. They err, that through indulgence to others, or fondness to any sin in themselves, substitute for repentance anything less. Hammond.…

Indulgence. Dryden.

Prone to indulge; yielding to the wishes, humor, or appetites of those under one's care; compliant; not opposing or restraining; tolerant; mild; favorable; not severe; as, an indulgent parent. Shak. The indulgent censure of posterity. Waller. The feeble old, indulgent of their ease. Dryden.

Relating to the indulgences of the Roman Catholic Church. Brevint.

In an indulgent manner; mildly; favorably. Dryden.

One who indulges. W. Montagu.

Indulgence of one's appetites, desires, or inclinations; -- the opposite of self-restraint, and self-denial.

Indulging one's appetites, desires, etc., freely.

To hold one's self aloof; to forbear or refrain voluntarily, and especially from an indulgence of the passions or appetites; -- with from. Not a few abstained from voting. Macaulay. Who abstains from meat that is not gaunt Shak.

efraining from a free use of food and strong drinks; temperate; abstinent; sparing in the indulgence of the appetite or passions. Instances of longevity are chiefly among the abstemious. Arbuthnot.

ice of abstaining; voluntary forbearance of any action, especially the refraining from an indulgence of appetite, or from customary gratifications of animal or sensual propensities. Specifically, the practice of abstaining from intoxicating beverages, -- called also total abstinence. The abstinence from a present pleas…

Refraining from indulgence, especially from the indulgence of appetite; abstemious; continent; temperate. Beau. & Fl.

License; indulgence. [Obs.] Locke.

A devotee of Bacchus; one who indulges in drunken revels; one who is noisy and riotous when intoxicated; a carouser. "Tipsy bacchanals." Shak.

Playful raillery; banter. "He . . . indulged himself only in an elegant badinage." Warburton.

o stigmatize as a bastard; to declare or decide legally to be illegitimate. The law is so indulgent as not to bastardize the child, if born, though not begotten, in lawful wedlock. Blackstone.

to tend or move toward; as, to bear up to one another. -- To bear with, to endure; to be indulgent to; to forbear to resent, oppose, or punish.

a Scotch Covenanter of the time of Charies II. Cameron and others refused to accept the "indulgence" offered the Presbyterian clergy, insisted on the Solemn league and Covenant, and in 1680 declared Charles II deposed for tyranny, breach of faith, etc. Cameron was killed at the battle of Airdmoss, but his followers be…