[f. LENIENT: see -ENCE.] Lenient action or behavior, indulgence.
1796. Anna Seward, Lett. (1811), IV. 163. I am indebted rather to this skiey-lenience, than to any great decrease in the complaint itself.
1815. J. C. Hobhouse, Substance Lett. (1816), II. 211. It will be necessary that this acceptance should be followed up by measures of the utmost lenience.
1826. R. H. Froude, Rem. (1838), I. 84. To look with lenience on the faults.
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., IV. 185. An ignorant unkindness, the most remote from Deronda’s large imaginative lenience towards others.
