Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Marked by or displaying integrity; upright: an honest lawyer.
- adj. Not deceptive or fraudulent; genuine: honest weight.
- adj. Equitable; fair: honest wages for an honest day's work.
- adj. Characterized by truth; not false: honest reporting.
- adj. Sincere; frank: an honest critique.
- adj. Of good repute; respectable.
- adj. Without affectation; plain: honest folk.
- adj. Virtuous; chaste.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Having a sense of honor; having honorable feelings, motives, or principles; free from deceit or hypocrisy; true, candid, upright, or just in speech and action; fair in dealing, or sincere in utterance; worthy to be trusted.
- Specifically— Having the virtue of chastity; chaste; virtuous: said of a woman.
- Having no disposition to cheat, steal, or lie.
- Characterized by or proceeding from honorable motives or principles; marked by truth, justice, sincerity, fairness, etc.: as, an honest transaction; honest opinions or motives; an honest effort.
- Of honorable quality; creditable; reputable; proper; becoming: as, a man of honest report.
- Excellent in quality; good.
- Of honorable appearance; fair-seeming; having the semblance of truthfulness, fairness, etc.
- Open; undisguised; boldly or frankly showing purpose, character, or quality, whether good or bad: as, the honest pursuit of pleasure or gain; an honest rogue.
- Synonyms and Conscientious, trust-worthy, trusty, frank.
- To do honor to; grace; adorn.
Wiktionary
- adj. of a person or institution Scrupulous with regard to telling the truth; not given to swindling, lying, or fraud; upright.
- adj. of a statement True, especially as far as is known by the person making the statement; fair; unbiased.
- adj. In good faith; without malice.
- adj. of a measurement device Accurate.
- adj. Authentic; full.
- adj. Earned or acquired in a fair manner.
- v. obsolete To adorn or grace; to honour; to make becoming, appropriate, or honourable.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Decent; honorable; suitable; becoming.
- adj. Characterized by integrity or fairness and straightforwardness in conduct, thought, speech, etc.; upright; just; equitable; trustworthy; truthful; sincere; free from fraud, guile, or duplicity; not false; -- said of persons and acts, and of things to which a moral quality is imputed
- adj. Open; frank.
- adj. Chaste; faithful; virtuous.
- v. obsolete To adorn; to grace; to honor; to make becoming, appropriate, or honorable.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. without dissimulation; frank.
- adj. not forged
- adj. gained or earned without cheating or stealing
- adj. not disposed to cheat or defraud; not deceptive or fraudulent
- adj. worthy of being depended on
- adj. without pretensions
- adj. marked by truth
Etymologies
- From Old French honeste, from Latin honestus, from honor. For the verb, see Latin honestare to clothe or adorn with honour, and compare French honester. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French honeste, from Latin honestus, honorable, from honor, honor (earlier honōs). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“ My conscience says, No; take heed, honest Launcelot; take heed, honest Gobbo; or, as aforesaid, honest Launcelot Gobbo; do not run; scorn running with thy heels.”
“When you're dealin 'with an honest event -- _honest_, mind you -- as goes on year after year between two parties both ekally set on winnin', the only way to get real satisfaction is to pick your fancy an 'go on backin' it.”
“There are several men that I _believe_ to be honest," returned the owner of the bungalow, "yet only one that I know to be _honest_, and who possesses at the same time the judgment to undertake a mission like the one I have been telling you about.”
The Motor Boat Club and The Wireless Or, the Dot, Dash and Dare Cruise
“Not only would they all stay here, but they would become honest -- these hardened rogues, who a few weeks before were wont to use the words _honest_ and _stupid_ as synonyms.”
“_very_ honest, or _exceedingly_ just, for the words _honest_ and _just_, literally admit of no comparison.”
“You'd rather see me drudging all the best moments of my life away, so you can lounge around Ju Penrose's saloon spending dollars you've no right to, than risk your peace of mind on an honest -- yes, _honest_ -- transaction that's going to give me a little of the comfort that you haven't the grit to help me to yourself. ”
“Secondly, any lasting peace is going to have to be a peace that's good for both sides, and, therefore, the term honest broker makes sense.”
“The term honest wealth, which was creeping into respectable periodicals, was exceedingly annoying to him.”
“Although not given to blushing, Dick felt that he coloured under his dye at the praise; for although they had certainly sold cheaply, he doubted whether the term honest could be fairly applied to the whole transaction.”
“A Fox News appearance that Michael Steele made on January 4th where he has used the term honest Injun to back up his remarks on conservative principles and a lot of Native Americans didn't like him using those words.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘honest’.
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EU Buzz - ALL words and expressions
A combined list of
1. EU Buzz - single words
2. EU Buzz - collocations
3. EU Buzz - the 100 most active
collocation constituentsabsorption capacity, absorption rate, acceding country, accession candidate, accession countries, accession country, accession criteria, accession cycle, accession negotia..., accession partner..., accession priorities, accession treaty and 2650 more...
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Russian Doll Words
A Russian Doll word is a word that, when you remove the first and last letters, is either the empty string, or a Russian Doll word. These are all of the 6 or more letter Russian Doll words found in...
waspiness, upraisers, strainers, sporangia, raspiness, prelatess, methanals, gaspiness, washings, uprisers, upraises, upraiser and 2373 more...
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RELI - words with Biblical connotations
Words in the Bible evoking biblical stories or with special spiritual meaning. Proper names have been reduced to the minimum.
ark, judgement, holy, saint, baptism, spirit, love, eternal, altar, balsam, covenant, flood and 1115 more...
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RBC: Adjectives for Henry's Ma
Our class list of adjectives for Henry's Ma.
determined, cautious, disappointed, uncertain, wise, stubborn, passionate, unsupportive, forgiving, firm, honest, dishonest and 36 more...
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Starts with a silent letter
...with grateful thanks to telofy (for "cnidarian"), and to the song "Crazy ABC's" by Barenaked Ladies.
cnidarian, mnemonic, chthonic, ptarmigan, psoriasis, psittacine, bdellium, aisle, czar, gnarly, gnat, gnaw and 82 more...
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How SchizoTypical of You...
Ever think you were just like everyone else? Anything like anyone? Maybe even a little Average?
What if it Was just all in your head... . .
double~edged sWordsrationalization, moralality, motivated, reluctant, mature, unconditional love, prudent, unique, empowered, energetic, honest, working on myself and 14 more...
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the indelible ink of personality
nefarious, mischievious, bawdy, intense, blunt, steadfast, succulent, edible, nature, creature, truth, touch and 28 more...
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Words that start with a silent H
honor, honest, heir, herb, hors d'oeuvre, hour, homage, hola, heiress, hombre, honorific, honorable and 1 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Descriptive
The present, the future. Goals, wishes, hopes.
capricious, sericeous, sleek, flawless, charming, skilled, long-haired, versatile, beautiful, witty, fair, thin and 145 more...
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NTB
chaos, Sagittarius, aether, magic, jester, fool, random, delirium, fire, life, cosmic, riddle and 120 more...
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Coruscatingly what?
List of adjectival terms, from aggressive to zippered, paired in printed materials with the adverb coruscatingly, identified by a simple query to Google Search (Books).
...propaedeutic...aggressive, angry, articulate, astringent, aware, beautiful, big, blinding, bright, brilliant, brutal, cerebral and 93 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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feeling words
twitterpated, loquacious, ambiguous, pensive, sluggish, anxious, adventurous, curious, abandoned, absent-minded, abrasive, abused and 653 more...
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Systems of Survival
Words from the book by Jane Jacobs.
Jane Jacobs, Systems of Survival, system, survival, Ralph Waldo Emerson, morals, values, territories, trade, working life, loyal, honest and 123 more...
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Gotim
Aries, fire, chaos, destruction, Mars, aggression, bold, competetive, conflict, raw, black, red and 165 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for honest.
missanthropist As in, 'Brutally Honest'... See also: lame, excuse, braggado. Jul 21, 2008
anydelirium 'I am not naturally honest, but sometimes I am so by chance.' -William Shakespeare Feb 19, 2008