indulgence

indulgence
    n 1: an inability to resist the gratification of whims and
         desires [syn: {indulgence}, {self-indulgence}]
    2: a disposition to yield to the wishes of someone; "too much
       indulgence spoils a child" [syn: {indulgence}, {lenience},
       {leniency}]
    3: the act of indulging or gratifying a desire [syn:
       {indulgence}, {indulging}, {pampering}, {humoring}]
    4: foolish or senseless behavior [syn: {folly}, {foolery},
       {tomfoolery}, {craziness}, {lunacy}, {indulgence}]
    5: the remission by the pope of the temporal punishment in
       purgatory that is still due for sins even after absolution;
       "in the Middle Ages the unrestricted sale of indulgences by
       pardoners became a widespread abuse"
    

Indulgence \In*dul"gence\, n. [L. indulgentia: cf. F.
   indulgence.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. The act of indulging or humoring; the quality of being
      indulgent; forbearance of restrain or control.
      [1913 Webster]

            If I were a judge, that word indulgence should never
            issue from my lips.                   --Tooke.
      [1913 Webster]

            They err, that through indulgence to others, or
            fondness to any sin in themselves, substitute for
            repentance anything less.             --Hammond.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. An indulgent act; favor granted; gratification.
      [1913 Webster]

            If all these gracious indulgences are without any
            effect on us, we must perish in our own folly.
                                                  --Rogers.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. (R. C. Ch.) Remission of the temporal punishment due to
      sins, after the guilt of sin has been remitted by sincere
      repentance; absolution from the censures and public
      penances of the church. It is a payment of the debt of
      justice to God by the application of the merits of Christ
      and his saints to the contrite soul through the church. It
      is therefore believed to diminish or destroy for sins the
      punishment of purgatory.
      [1913 Webster]
    

Indulgence \In*dul"gence\, v. t.
   To grant an indulgence to.
   [1913 Webster]
    

120 Moby Thesaurus words for "indulgence":
      acceptance, accommodatingness, agreeableness, allowance,
      attentiveness, benevolence, blank check, carte blanche,
      charitableness, charity, coddling, complaisance, concern,
      condonation, connivance, considerateness, consideration, copyright,
      cosseting, crapulence, crapulency, crapulousness, delicacy,
      dispensation, disregard, drunkenness, easiness, endurance, excess,
      excessiveness, extravagance, favor, favoring, forbearance,
      forbearing, forbearingness, forgiveness, forgivingness, fortitude,
      franchise, freedom, generousness, gluttony, grant, gratification,
      heedfulness, helpfulness, humoring, immoderacy, immoderateness,
      immoderation, immunity, incontinence, indiscipline, inordinacy,
      inordinateness, intemperance, intemperateness, kindness, lenience,
      leniency, lenity, liberty, license, long-sufferance,
      long-suffering, longanimity, luxury, magnanimity, mindfulness,
      mollycoddling, obliging, obligingness, overdoing, overindulgence,
      overlooking, overpermissiveness, pampering, patent, patience,
      patience of Job, patientness, permissiveness, perseverance,
      pleasing, privilege, prodigality, profligacy, regard,
      regardfulness, self-control, self-gratification, self-indulgence,
      self-satisfaction, solicitousness, solicitude, special favor,
      spoiling, stoicism, sufferance, sweet reasonableness, swinishness,
      tact, tactfulness, thought, thoughtfulness, tolerance, toleration,
      too much, too-muchness, treat, unconstraint, uncontrol,
      understanding, unrestraint, unrevengefulness, waiting game,
      waiting it out, warrant, winking