Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Inclined not to be harsh or strict; merciful, generous, or indulgent: lenient parents; lenient rules.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Softening; mitigating; assuasive.
- Relaxing; emollient; lenitive.
- Acting or disposed to act without rigor or severity; mild; gentle; merciful; clement.
- Synonyms Forbearing, tender. See leniency.
- n. An emollient; a lenitive.
Wiktionary
- adj. lax; tolerant of deviation; permissive; not strict
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Relaxing; emollient; softening; assuasive; -- sometimes followed by
of . - adj. Mild; clement; merciful; not rigorous or severe
- n. A lenitive; an emollient.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. characterized by tolerance and mercy
- adj. tolerant or lenient
- adj. not strict
Etymologies
- Obsolete French, from Latin lēniēns, lēnient-, present participle of lēnīre, to pacify, from lēnis, soft; see lē- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Robert Mugabe's cabinet, arose from his criticism of what he called lenient sentences imposed by a High Court judge on three American missionaries for possession of arms.”
“And remember, sometimes that mistake is being too lenient from the beginning.”
“Court reviews 'lenient' sentence for rape court in East China's Zhejiang province will rehear a controversial trial that handed down what the public called a lenient sentence to two”
WN.com - Articles related to Mafias expose China's legal woes
“He was severely reprimanded on more than one occasion for being too lenient - in other words, too gentlemanly - and finally my letters, received or written, which had been submitted to him for examination, were transferred to the detective Dennis, who, in order to seem vigilant in proportion to his former stolidity, returned me the simplest note, as being offensive to the canaille of the”
Documenting the American South: The Southern Experience in 19-th Century America
“With such individuals the proctor's sons were disposed to be lenient, which is certainly more than could be said if he himself had to deal with them.”
“And testing companies are businesses that compete with one another for contracts, so they know the benefits of providing favourable laboratory results and becoming known as the lenient lab, says Midler.”
“The sentences were shorter than the maximum penalty of two years, and were described as lenient by prosecutors.”
“The FACT is – we're partly in this whole mess because Congress (under Clinton) decided lendors should be pressed to use more "lenient" lending practices helping low-income people get into houses & mortgages they otherwise could not afford.”
“It's kind of hypocritical, considering how "lenient" they are with their own pedophile priests.”
“But the study found that achieving "lenient" control of fewer than 110 heart beats per minute was at least as effective in preventing death from cardiovascular causes, stroke and other life-threatening events.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘lenient’.
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Eesily missspellable words
absence, abundance, accessible, accidentally, acclaim, accommodate, accomplish, accordion, accumulate, achievement, acquaintance, across and 420 more...
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My woRdz...
layover, deet, etiquette, fondling, snog, dead letter office, lenient, severe, banter, grapple, sentiment, slacks and 1 more...
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