Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- adj. Scots Physically attractive or appealing; pretty.
- adj. Scots Excellent.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- adj. Alternative spelling of bonnie.
- n. A round and compact bed of ore, or a distinct bed, not communicating with a vein.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- adj. Handsome; beautiful; pretty; attractively lively and graceful.
- adj. Gay; merry; frolicsome; cheerful; blithe.
- n. A round and compact bed of ore, or a distinct bed, not communicating with a vein.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Beautiful; fair or pleasant to look upon; pretty; fine.
- Gay; merry; frolicsome; cheerful; blithe.
- n. In mining, a mass of ore adjacent to a vein, but not distinctly connected with it; “a great collection of ore, without any vein coming into or going from it,” See carbona.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adj. very pleasing to the eye
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Examples
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If she's clever compared with the rest of them then I pity our cousins in bonny Scotland.
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See here is our ain bonny Charlie for a guard, and what better could an auld Jacobite wish for? said Kenneth, looking fondly on his wife; while their son marched past them in his Highland dress and wooden claymore by his side.
Sketches and Tales Illustrative of Life in the Backwoods of New Brunswick, North America
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He wad mak a bonny corpse; I wad like to hae the streiking and winding
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'She used to be -- bonny, that is, as a button or a buckle micht be bonny.
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That's the equivalent of my parents describing a girl as "bonny" when they meant she'd be better looking if she'd been hit in the face with a shovel.
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"Eh, but ye wad mak a bonny munsie o 'me, Grannie, to hae me feart at the deil an' a '!
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He wad mak a bonny corpse; I wad like to hae the streiking and winding o 'him. "
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I am acquainted) -- equally joyous would Mr. Evans have been to have had the inspection of some of these 'bonny' songs.
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An accurate, daguerrotyped portrait of a commonplace face: a carefully fenced, highly cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers: but no glance of a bright, vivid physiognomy, no open country, no fresh air, no blue hill, no bonny beck.
Nava Atlas: Based Upon the Book: An Interview with Charlotte Brontë
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You can bid for the Roboraptor at the Philcon TAFF auction, where it will be auctioned off to send a deserving sci-fi fan to bonny old England!
hernesheir commented on the word bonny
A small quantity of anything. --Dr. Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary and Supplement, 1841.
May 9, 2011
seanahan commented on the word bonny
I thought this was Irish, but it's actually Scottish, which I guess is pretty close. "Bonnie lass" is fairly common phrase in Celtic music.
October 31, 2007
jeffazi commented on the word bonny
very pleasing to the eye (also "bonnie").
October 31, 2007