from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Patient \Pa"tient\, n.
1. One who, or that which, is passively affected; a passive
recipient.
[1913 Webster]
Malice is a passion so impetuous and precipitate
that it often involves the agent and the patient.
--Gov. of
Tongue.
[1913 Webster]
2. A person under medical or surgical treatment; --
correlative to physician or nurse.
[1913 Webster]
Like a physician, . . . seeing his patient in a
pestilent fever. --Sir P.
Sidney.
[1913 Webster]
{In patient}, a patient who receives lodging and food, as
treatment, in a hospital or an infirmary.
{Out patient}, one who receives advice and medicine, or
treatment, from an infirmary.
[1913 Webster]