wear out vs. be worn out

[Matthew Wai]

My patience began to be 'wasted' or 'used'.

I think you can say 'I was using up my patience', but I am not a teacher.

 

[tedmc]

I have not heard of patience being used up.
I have heard of the following though:
patience is being lost/strained/tested/stretched to the limit. It is a state or level of endurance before one turns to negativity. Apparently, it is not something that you use at your disposal but is something that others do to it.

 

[mawes12]

Are you saying it doesn't have the same meaning? To me, it has the same meaning. What if I say 'rub off'? Will it have the same meaning?

 

[Eckaslike]

I think tedmc has the version that works for me in BrE, I realise that in AmE it may be fine.

I've heard of it in the sense of; "You're fast using up my patience", to mean the same as, "You're testing my patience".

but I wouldn't use "I was using up my patience".

I would say "My patience is being stretched/tested [to the limit]"., or "I'm losing my patience",

This ties in with tedmc's explanation. I think in BrE, others do it to you, you generally can't do it to yourself.

Apart from the phrase; "I was losing patience with myself". Where you keep doing things wrongly and you get annoyed with yourself. Is that what AmE users say as "I was using up my patience"?

 

[mawes12]

I think tedmc has the version that works for me in BrE, I realise that in AmE it may be fine.

I've heard of it in the sense of; "You're fast using up my patience", to mean the same as, "You're testing my patience".

but I wouldn't use "I was using up my patience".

I would say "My patience is being stretched/tested [to the limit]"., or "I'm losing my patience",

This ties in with tedmc's explanation. I think in BrE, others do it to you, you generally can't do it to yourself.

Apart from the phrase; "I was losing patience with myself". Where you keep doing things wrongly and you get annoyed with yourself. Is that what AmE users say as "I was using up my patience"?

I really don't hear that phrase a lot so I don't know but like Tedmc says, I thought it can be something like a limit where things increase and decrease. Isn't it almost like saying 'you're wasting my time'?

 

[Matthew Wai]

I think in BrE, others do it to you, you generally can't do it to yourself.

Can you do it to yourself If you have long been waiting for something which doesn't appear?

 

[Eckaslike]

In BrE I would say you only do it to yourself when you are very frustrated with yourself. It is used when the bad outcome of doing something is your own, or partially your own, fault.

Matthew, I can't really think of an example in that context. It may be possible. I am trying to think of an example where you might use it. I would say it would probably be more unusual.

However, it could work like that, in this sort of sentence: "When the bus didn't turn up, I lost patience with myself over the fact that I kept going to the wrong bus stop!". :up:

But, even there, you are blaming yourself [and getting frustrated], because despite getting it wrong previously, you keep making the same mistake by going to the wrong bus stop.

So, thinking about it, to me, it is used when you blame yourself for things that go wrong which are your own fault. Usually, it is something that you are doing wrongly which you think you should be able to do.

In, "I lost patience with myself because I couldn't program the computer.", the "I lost patience with myself" element is almost idiomatic. It is because you "lost" your patience, which in this context, implies that it has happend at least once before, despite your attempts to get the task right.

e.g.:
"I lost patience with myself because I read the paragraph several times, but still couldn't understand it." (You blame yourself for not concentrating).

"I lost patience with myself over the fact that, during the fire drill I ran into the wall again rather than going out of the door, for the third time this week!" (You blame yourself, because using a door should be easy).

Is that any help?