All 21 Uses of

indulgent
in
Middlemarch

Riding was an indulgence which she allowed herself in spite of conscientious qualms; she felt that she enjoyed it in a pagan sensuous way, and always looked forward to renouncing it.†
Chpt 1

indulgence = treatment with extra kindness or tolerance OR (more rarely) a special pleasure (typically something done in excess of what is thought good -- such as eating too much cake, or being too lazy)

If that were true, Celia, my giving-up would be self-indulgence, not self-mortification.†
Chpt 1

self-indulgence = being excessively kind to or undemanding of oneself

Such, my dear Miss Brooke, is the accurate statement of my feelings; and I rely on your kind indulgence in venturing now to ask you how far your own are of a nature to confirm my happy presentiment.†
Chpt 1

indulgence = treatment with extra kindness or tolerance OR (more rarely) a special pleasure (typically something done in excess of what is thought good -- such as eating too much cake, or being too lazy)

Doubtless; but I fear that my young relative Will Ladislaw is chiefly determined in his aversion to these callings by a dislike to steady application, and to that kind of acquirement which is needful instrumentally, but is not charming or immediately inviting to self-indulgent taste.†
Chpt 1

self-indulgent = excessively kind to or undemanding of oneself

He was one of those rare men who are rigid to themselves and indulgent to others.
Chpt 3 *

indulgent = treat with extra kindness or tolerance

He was loud, robust, and was sometimes spoken of as being "given to indulgence"—chiefly in swearing, drinking, and beating his wife.†
Chpt 3

indulgence = treatment with extra kindness or tolerance OR (more rarely) a special pleasure (typically something done in excess of what is thought good -- such as eating too much cake, or being too lazy)

But this very fact of her exceptional indulgence towards him made it the harder to Fred that he must now inevitably sink in her opinion.†
Chpt 3

"Don't fear for me, father," said Mary, gravely meeting her father's eyes; "Fred has always been very good to me; he is kind-hearted and affectionate, and not false, I think, with all his self-indulgence.†
Chpt 3

self-indulgence = being excessively kind to or undemanding of oneself

Meanwhile, Mr. Vincy had glanced at the passive face of Mr. Rigg, and had taken out his snuff-box and tapped it, but had put it again unopened as an indulgence which, however clarifying to the judgment, was unsuited to the occasion.†
Chpt 4

indulgence = treatment with extra kindness or tolerance OR (more rarely) a special pleasure (typically something done in excess of what is thought good -- such as eating too much cake, or being too lazy)

He was fond of a pinch when it occurred to him, but he usually forgot that this indulgence was at his command.†
Chpt 4

With Rosamond, on the other hand, he pouted and was wayward—nay, often uncomplimentary, much to her inward surprise; nevertheless he was gradually becoming necessary to her entertainment by his companionship in her music, his varied talk, and his freedom from the grave preoccupation which, with all her husband's tenderness and indulgence, often made his manners unsatisfactory to her, and confirmed her dislike of the medical profession.†
Chpt 5

There was a striking mixture in him—which came from his having always been a hard-working man himself—of rigorous notions about workmen and practical indulgence towards them.†
Chpt 6

But she assured me she would never marry an idle self-indulgent man—nothing since.†
Chpt 6

self-indulgent = excessively kind to or undemanding of oneself

Perhaps it was not possible for Lydgate, under the double stress of outward material difficulty and of his own proud resistance to humiliating consequences, to imagine fully what this sudden trial was to a young creature who had known nothing but indulgence, and whose dreams had all been of new indulgence, more exactly to her taste.†
Chpt 6

indulgence = treatment with extra kindness or tolerance OR (more rarely) a special pleasure (typically something done in excess of what is thought good -- such as eating too much cake, or being too lazy)

Perhaps it was not possible for Lydgate, under the double stress of outward material difficulty and of his own proud resistance to humiliating consequences, to imagine fully what this sudden trial was to a young creature who had known nothing but indulgence, and whose dreams had all been of new indulgence, more exactly to her taste.†
Chpt 6

On the last occasion of his return from it he was observed to bring with him a new companion, a stranger to Mr. Trumbull and every one else, whose appearance, however, led to the supposition that he might be a relative of the horse-dealer's—also "given to indulgence."†
Chpt 6

His large whiskers, imposing swagger, and swing of the leg, made him a striking figure; but his suit of black, rather shabby at the edges, caused the prejudicial inference that he was not able to afford himself as much indulgence as he liked.†
Chpt 6

Papa said he had come, with one bad year after another, to trade more and more on borrowed capital, and had had to give up many indulgences; he could not spare a single hundred from the charges of his family.†
Chpt 7

indulgences = special pleasures--typically things done in excess of what is thought good--such as eating too much cake, or being too lazy OR (more rarely) special privileges or kindnesses

On the other hand, she was disproportionately indulgent towards the failings of men, and was often heard to say that these were natural.†
Chpt 3

I shall never marry again," said Dorothea, touching her sister's chin, and looking at her with indulgent affection.†
Chpt 6

Lydgate's anger rose: he was prepared to be indulgent towards feminine weakness, but not towards feminine dictation.†
Chpt 7

Definitions:

(1) (indulgent)
to treat with extra kindness or tolerance
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
meaning too rare to warrant focus:

In the form, indulgence, the word can also refer to a special pleasure--typically something done in excess of what is thought good--such as eating too much cake, or being too lazy