The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Forbearance \For*bear"ance\, n.
   The act of forbearing or waiting; the exercise of patience.
   [1913 Webster]

         He soon shall find
         Forbearance no acquittance ere day end.  --Milton.
   [1913 Webster]

   2. The quality of being forbearing; indulgence toward
      offenders or enemies; long-suffering.
      [1913 Webster]

            Have a continent forbearance, till the speed of his
            rage goes slower.                     --Shak.

   Syn: Abstinence; refraining; lenity; mildness.
        [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

forbearance
    n 1: good-natured tolerance of delay or incompetence [syn:
         patience, forbearance, longanimity] [ant:
         impatience]
    2: a delay in enforcing rights or claims or privileges;
       refraining from acting; "his forbearance to reply was
       alarming"

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

132 Moby Thesaurus words for "forbearance":
   abandonment, abeyance, abjuration, abjurement, abnegation,
   acceptance, avoidance, avoiding reaction, benevolence, cessation,
   charitableness, charity, circumvention, clemency, clementness,
   cold storage, commiseration, compassion, condolence, condonation,
   constraint, defense mechanism, denial, desistance, discontinuance,
   disregard, dodge, duck, easiness, easygoingness, elusion,
   elusiveness, endurance, equivocation, escape, evasion,
   evasive action, evasiveness, favor, feeling, forbearing,
   forbearingness, forestalling, forestallment, forgiveness,
   forgivingness, fortitude, frugality, generousness, gentleness,
   getting around, golden mean, grace, humaneness, humanity,
   indulgence, jink, kindness, laxness, lenience, leniency,
   lenientness, lenity, long-sufferance, long-suffering, longanimity,
   magnanimity, mercifulness, mercy, mildness, mitigation,
   moderateness, moderation, neutrality, nonexercise, nonintervention,
   noninvolvement, nothing in excess, overlooking, pardon, pathos,
   patience, patience of Job, patientness, permissiveness,
   perseverance, pity, prevention, quarter, refraining, relief,
   relinquishment, renouncement, renunciation, reprieve, resignation,
   restraint, ruth, self-control, self-denial, self-discipline,
   self-mastery, self-pity, self-restraint, shunning, shunting off,
   shy, sidestep, sidetracking, slip, soberness, sobriety, softness,
   sophrosyne, stoicism, sufferance, suspension, sweet reasonableness,
   sympathy, temperance, temperateness, tenderness, the runaround,
   thoughtful, tolerance, toleration, uncomplainingness,
   unrevengefulness, waiting game, waiting it out, waiver, zigzag



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

FORBEARANCE, contracts. The act by which a creditor waits for the payment of
the debt due him by the debtor, after it has become due.
     2. When the creditor agrees to forbear with his debtor, this is a
sufficient consideration to support an assumpsit made by the debtor. 4 John.
R. 237; 2. Nott & McCord, 133; 2 Binn. R. 510; Com. Dig. Action upon the
case upon assumpsit, B 1; Dane's Ab. Index, h.t.; 1 Leigh's N. P. 31; 1
Penna. R. 385; 4 Wash. C. C. R. 148; 5 Rawle's R. 69.
     3. The forbearance must be of some right which can be enforces with
effect against the party forborne; if it cannot be so enforced by the party
forbearing, he has sustained no detriment, and the party forborne has
derived no benefit. 4 East, 455 5 B. & Ald. 123. See 1 B. & A. 605 Burge on
Sur. 12, 13. Vide Giving time.