Freeborn; of honorable extraction. Rods and ferulas were not used by Ammonius, as being properly the punishment of slaves, and not the correction of ingenuous freeborn men. Dryden, Plutarch, II. 359.
Generous; noble: as, an ingenuous ardor or zeal. Nothing depraves ingenuous Spirits, and corrupts clear Wits, more than Want and Indigence. Howell, Letters, I. vi. 14.
Free from restraint or reserve; frank; open; candid: used of persons or things: as, an ingenuous mind; an ingenuous confession. And in 's ingenuous countenance having read Pure characters of Worth, he doubled not All freest Trust in his fair Slave to put. J. Beaumont, Psyche, i. 140.That finest color in nature, according to the ancient Greek, the blush of an ingenuous youth. Sumner, Orations, I. 169.Elaborate sculptures, full of ingenuous intention and of the reality of early faith, are in a remarkable state of preservation. H. James, Jr., Little Tour, p. 79.
The men, ingenuous, lively young fellows from Saxony and Prussia, received me very kindly, and the variety of their different services and their readiness to talk about them, gave me a good insight into the inner relationship between the landed aristocracy and their retainers.
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Autobiography of Friedrich Froebel
He was very fond of Nephew George; well recognizing the ingenuous, wise and loyal nature of the young man.
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History of Friedrich II of Prussia
A humane ingenuous Princess; little negligences in toilet or the like, if such occur, even these set her off, so ingenuous are they.
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History of Friedrich II of Prussia
He saw her just as she was--ingenuous, and ignorant if you like--except that she was pure.
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The Pretty Lady
The child Pansie, frisking with her kitten â” a more simple, ingenuous, and self-centred, but also less sympathetic nature than the Pearl of Hester Prynne â” may have been studied from Hawthorne's daughter Rose.
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The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne