Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The condition of being gentle or of good birth; gentility.
- n. The state or quality of being gentle in manners or disposition; mildness of temper; sweetness of disposition; kindness; tenderness.
- n. Softness; freedom from roughness; mildness; delicacy: as, gentleness of touch.
- n. Ease; gradualness; absence of abruptness or steepness: as, the gentleness of an elevation or a slope.
Wiktionary
- n. The state of being gentle.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The quality or state of being gentle, well-born, mild, benevolent, docile, etc.; gentility; softness of manners, disposition, etc.; mildness.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the property possessed by a slope that is very gradual
- n. acting in a manner that is gentle and mild and even-tempered
Examples
“Perhaps the quadruple prepositional phrases, which delay the word gentleness from being connected with murder.”
“You must grow in gentleness and grace, in lightness and harmony.”
“Their gentleness is so absolute, so sweet, that we recognise in it the infancy of that humanity which can remain oppresed by every form of yoke, by every injustice; and the child's love of knowledge is such that it surpasses every”
“Gentile, both school and society having the object of educating youth in gentleness towards their surroundings – that is, in respect for objects, buildings, monuments: a really important part of civil education, and one which interested me particularly on account of the Children's”
“The Prince overtook them with rapid strides, and knowing that the power of gentleness is more lasting than that of anger, he suppressed his wrath as he spoke to them, though withal he reproved them sternly.”
“But wish what condescension and gentleness is this done!”
“At such times she was very subdued in gentleness and in observance of Mr. Carlisle's pleasure; subdued to a meekness foreign to her natural mood, and which, generally, to tell the truth, was accompanied by a very unwonted sedateness of spirits also; something very like the sedateness of despair.”
“The soft north wind that had greeted the travellers in the early morning, was blowing yet, soft and warm; it flickered the leaves of the oaks and chestnuts with a lazy summer stir; white sails spotted the broad bosom of the Shatemuc and came down with summer gentleness from the upper reaches of the river.”
“Gray-haired, with a sculpted face and an authoritative, courtly Fred Thompson voice, he has the bearing of an elder statesman, tempered by a certain gentleness.”
“We should recall the gentleness with which saints like St. Francis of Assisi or St. Philip Neri treated animals.”
Lists
‘gentleness’ hasn't been added to any lists yet.
abraxaszugzwang Do not think me gentle
because I speak in praise
of gentleness, or elegant
because I honor the grace
that keeps this world. I am
a man crude as any,
gross of speech, intolerant,
stubborn, angry, full
of fits and furies. That I
may have spoken well
at times, is not natural.
A wonder is what it is. Jan 29, 2007