Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Liberality in bestowing gifts, especially in a lofty or condescending manner.
- n. Money or gifts bestowed.
- n. Generosity of spirit or attitude.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Liberality; generosity; bounty.
- n. A liberal gift or donation; a present; a bounty bestowed.
- n. Synonyms Gratuity, etc. See present, n.
Wiktionary
- n. Generosity in the giving of gifts or money.
- n. The gifts or money given in such a way.
- n. A benevolent demeanor.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Liberality; generosity; bounty.
- n. A present; a gift; a bounty bestowed.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a gift or money given (as for service or out of benevolence); usually given ostentatiously
- n. liberality in bestowing gifts; extremely liberal and generous of spirit
Etymologies
- Middle English largesse, from Old French, from large, generous, from Latin largus.
Examples
“Be sure to call it "largess" if he scatters it among them.”
“Sure, there are many people who want Griffin reappointed-and nearly every one of them is scared of losing their federal largess from the Constellation money pot.”
“But he who has naught can dispense the world in largess; and I, who had naught, gave Kim captaincy of the palace guards.”
“If you mean moving the ball forward in terms of international attention, or in terms of eventually getting recognition and largess from the West for the former PLO (which at the start of the first intifada was exiled to Tunisia), then yes.”
“The future of that largess is in doubt a year into the credit crunch, with the bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the sale of Merrill Lynch & Co. adding to the thousands of jobs already lost — and the likelihood that more will come.”
“Since nothing in The Constitution authorizes the US gubmint to send billions of taxpayer dollars out to foreign countries as “aid”, any potential candidate for the Whitehouse not in favor of such largess is automatically disqualified by the likes of AIPAC and their ilk. little guy”
“Some of this largess is given as strings attached grants to universities; primarily to the U of Texas, U of Tulsa, and Stanford.”
“It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasure.”
Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » On Class Warfare and Income Taxes, Part 1
“This blog - and a host of other St. Blog's parishioners - are the recipients of largess from a semi-anonymous benefactress.”
“I believe if one looked back to even the 1950’s one would find a great deal less in public largess from the government to the populace, so one could argue that the public * is* using its numbers to alter the system.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Democracy and the Appeal of Socialism
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘largess’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
bilby Like a digress, but bigger. Dec 14, 2009
bilby "So, when the bards and the heralds came to cry largess, and to proclaim the power of the king, and his strength, at the moment when they passed by the corner wherein he was crouching, Taliesin pouted out his lips after them, and played 'Blerwm, blerwm!' with his finger upon his lips."
- Thomas Bulfinch, 'Age of Fable'. Sep 19, 2009
johnmperry cf largesse Jul 22, 2008