Adjacent Words

Childlike definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CHILDLIKE, a. Resembling a child or that which belongs to children; becoming a child; meek; submissive; dutiful; as childlike obedience.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: befitting a young child; "childlike charm" [syn: childlike, childly]
2: exhibiting childlike simplicity and credulity; "childlike trust"; "dewy-eyed innocence"; "listened in round-eyed wonder" [syn: childlike, wide-eyed, round-eyed, dewy- eyed, simple]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 1586 resembling, suggesting, or appropriate to a child or childhood; especially marked by innocence, trust, and ingenuousness <childlike delight> • childlikeness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. having the good qualities of a child as innocence, frankness, etc.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Childlike Child"like, a. Resembling a child, or that which belongs to children; becoming a child; meek; submissive; dutiful. ``Childlike obedience.'' --Hooker. Note: Childlike, as applied to persons grown up, is commonly in a good sense; as, childlike grace or simplicity; childlike modesty.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

You describe someone as childlike when they seem like a child in their character, appearance, or behaviour. His most enduring quality is his childlike innocence... ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Docile, meek, submissive, dutiful, obedient, gentle. 2. Simple, innocent, ingenuous, uncrafty, guileless, trustful, confiding.

Moby Thesaurus

angelic, artless, babish, babyish, beardless, blameless, bluff, blunt, born yesterday, boyish, boylike, calflike, candid, childish, clear, coltish, confiding, credulous, decrepit, dependent, depending, direct, doddering, doddery, doited, doting, dovelike, faultless, frank, girlish, girllike, guileless, guiltless, immature, in the clear, incorrupt, infantile, infantine, ingenu, ingenuous, innocent, kiddish, lamblike, maiden, maidenly, naive, not guilty, offenseless, open, openhearted, outspoken, plain, prelapsarian, pristine, puerile, puplike, puppyish, puppylike, reliant, relying, reproachless, sans reproche, senile, simple, simplehearted, simpleminded, sincere, single-hearted, single-minded, sinless, trustful, trusting, trusty, unassuming, uncorrupted, undefiled, undissembling, unfallen, unguarded, unlapsed, unreserved, unsophisticated, unsuspecting, unsuspicious, untouched by evil, unwary, with clean hands, without reproach, without suspicion, young, youthful