Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Physically attractive or appealing; pretty.
- adjective Excellent.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Beautiful; fair or pleasant to look upon; pretty; fine.
- Gay; merry; frolicsome; cheerful; blithe.
- noun 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 the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Handsome; beautiful; pretty; attractively lively and graceful.
- adjective Gay; merry; frolicsome; cheerful; blithe.
- noun (Mining) A round and compact bed of ore, or a distinct bed, not communicating with a vein.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Geordie Alternative spelling of
bonnie . - noun mining A
round andcompact bed ofore , or a distinct bed, not communicating with avein .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective 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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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
jeffazi commented on the word bonny
very pleasing to the eye (also "bonnie").
October 31, 2007
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
hernesheir commented on the word bonny
A small quantity of anything. --Dr. Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary and Supplement, 1841.
May 9, 2011