This study investigates the conceptualisation of tolerance via metaphors in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) press media after proclaiming 2019 as the ‘Year of Tolerance’. The results revealed that various source domains are used to conceptualise tolerance, reflecting certain aspects of the Emirati culture and affecting the Emirati cultural model of tolerance. There are three types of experience working together to shape the formation of conceptual metaphors of tolerance: firstly, bodily experience which emerges from human cognitive embodiment. Secondly, this bodily experience mingles with cultural experience in the Emirati context, which suggests that embodiment is socioculturally grounded. Finally, there is linguistic experience which is inherited by its speakers as part of their cognitive and cultural heritage.