Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having a strong liking, inclination, or affection: fond of ballet; fond of my nieces and nephews.
- adj. Affectionate; tender: a fond embrace.
- adj. Immoderately affectionate or indulgent; doting: fond grandparents who tended to spoil the child.
- adj. Cherished; dear: my fondest hopes.
- adj. Archaic Naively credulous or foolish.
- n. The background of a design in lace.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- An obsolete preterit of find.
- A Middle English form of fand.
- Foolish; simple; silly.
- Exhibiting or expressing foolishness or folly.
- Foolishly tender and loving; doting; weakly indulgent; also (without implication of weakness or foolishness), tender; loving; very affectionate.
- Foolishly or extravagantly prized; hence, trifling; trivial.
- Disposed to prize highly or to like very much; feeling affection or pleasure: usually followed by of, rarely by an infinitive: as, to be fond of children; to be fond of oysters.
- Cloyingly sweet in taste or smell; fulsome; luscious.
- To be fond; be in love; dote.
- To treat with great indulgence or tenderness; caress; fondle.
- n. Bottom.
- n. Fund; stock.
- n. (F. pron. fôṅ). A background or groundwork, especially of lace.
- n. A gravy from braized and spiced meats which serves as the foundation for sauces.
Wiktionary
- adj. Having a liking or affection (for).
- adj. Affectionate.
- adj. Indulgent.
- adj. Outlandish; foolish; silly.
- n. The background design in lace-making.
- v. obsolete To have a foolish affection for, to be fond of.
GNU Webster's 1913
- imp. of find. Found.
- adj. Archaic Foolish; silly; simple; weak.
- adj. Foolishly tender and loving; weakly indulgent; over-affectionate.
- adj. Affectionate; loving; tender; -- in a good sense.
- adj. Loving; much pleased; affectionately regardful, indulgent, or desirous; longing or yearning; -- followed by
of (formerly also byon ). - adj. rare Doted on; regarded with affection.
- adj. obsolete Trifling; valued by folly; trivial.
- v. obsolete To caress; to fondle.
- v. obsolete To be fond; to dote.
- n. Foundation; bottom; groundwork.
- n. (Lace Making) The ground.
- n. (Cookery) The broth or juice from braised flesh or fish, usually served as a sauce.
- n. Fund, stock, or store.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having or displaying warmth or affection
- adj. absurd or silly because unlikely
- adj. extravagantly or foolishly loving and indulgent
- adj. (followed by `of' or `to') having a strong preference or liking for
Etymologies
- From Middle English fond, fonned, past participle of Middle English fonnen ("to be foolish, be simple, dote"), equivalent to fon + -ed. More at fon. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English fonned, foolish, probably from past participle of fonnen, to be foolish, probably from fonne, fool.French, from Old French fonds, fond, from Latin fundus, bottom. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Alas, I have no dowry to give you, save the blessing of your dear old -- your dear fond, _fond_ father, _ (kisses her forehead) _ But only obey me in this, and Lady Fortune will smile on us all -- smile -- _smile_.”
“While I have no doubt that _au fond ... au fond_ he is a charming boy, quite charming, at present he is -- shall I say?”
“V. ii.199 (334,4) a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and through the most fond and winnowed opinions] [W: most fann'd] This is a very happy emendation; but I know not why the critic should suppose that _fond_ was printed for _fann'd_ in consequence of any reason or reflection.”
“He has and always will remain fond of the fans in Minnesota.”
“Probably the one of which I'm most fond is the barber Floyd Bone, who first makes his appearance in chapter 2:”
“I call her fond names, and make the sign of the cross over it every night.”
“In French cooking, a stock is called the fond de cuisine, the foundation of cooking.”
“John smiled at her in fond thanks – the wife who hindered him by no selfishness or weakness, but was his right hand and support in everything.”
“He went from London into Gloucestershire to my sister who was very ill, and his youngest girl, of which he was very fond, is since dead.”
Letters from Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple (1652-54)
“She has these here things they call fond memories, and maybe a lock of hair and a corset steel that he broke, treasured up.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fond’.
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Do More Than Love
List of words describing fondness or praise.
idolatrize, endearment, admire, approve, treasure, fancy, appreciate, respect, cherish, fond, desire, enjoy
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GCI
spinster, maiden, happy-go-lucky, homonym, ill-at-ease, saw red, out of sorts, hot under the collar, taken aback, pen-names, alias, shoelaces and 378 more...
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strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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parody's Words
defenestrate, behemoth, floss, macchiato, glom, emu, alpaca, crocheted, ampersand, charade, conflate, salacious and 193 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, F
felony, frolic, fend, fuselage, farthingale, freewheeling, frigorific, flummery, fancypants, felsitic, flagstone, flageolet and 295 more...
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words found to be generally pleasing
alabaster, mahogany, camphor, coalesce, spire, portmanteau, gadabout, palaver, dolor, dour, dun, luminesce and 610 more...
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Blood Meridian
Or, Evening Redness in the West.
parallax, ciboleros, pyrolatrous, tatterdemalion, enfilade, fond, ciborium, holothurian, archimandrite, thaumaturge
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Some Words I Love to Use
arcology, strumpet, crux, confected, pedant, bluestocking, cogitation, incensed, lovecraftian, cygnet, dactyl, adytum and 539 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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vocabs
to learn
fond, fuss, unhinged, syndication, mayhem, invoke, nostalgia, bizarre, blatantly, condemn, comrade, captivity and 89 more...
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sputnik
canoodle, span, hasten, discombobulate, sputnik, clod, encrusted, spit-shine, zeitgeist, landslide, laid, cherish and 350 more...
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favorite words
sawbones, grackle, celadon, brio, loam, trull, mint, saliva, serape, frisson, impasto, reek and 547 more...
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describe me
charming, afectionate, addictive, selfless, patience, drastic, fond, light-heeled, fragrant, delicate, care-free, natural and 95 more...
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fbharjo's Words
jumelle, kef, kenspeckle, lautitious, essentic, pilpulistic, impavid, cicurant, clou, chrysostomic, miasma, teleology and 1625 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for fond.

qroqqa Originally the past participle of a now obsolete verb 'fon', whose original meaning was "lose flavour, become insipid", later extended to foolishness of various kinds, in particular foolish doting upon something: whence the modern sense, with the foolishness unimplied. Probably related to 'fun'. Jul 17, 2009