Adjacent Words

Merciful definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

MER'CIFUL, a. [from mercy.] Having or exercising mercy; compassionate; tender; disposed to pity offenders and to forgive their offenses; unwilling to punish for injuries; applied appropriately to the Supreme being.
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth. Exodus 34.
1. Compassionate; tender; unwilling to give pain; not cruel. A merciful man will be merciful to his beast.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: showing or giving mercy; "sought merciful treatment for the captives"; "a merciful god" [ant: merciless, unmerciful]
2: (used conventionally of royalty and high nobility) gracious; "our merciful king"

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 14th century full of mercy ; compassionate <a merciful ruler>; also providing relief <a merciful end> • mercifulness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. having or showing or feeling mercy. Derivatives: mercifulness n.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Merciful Mer"ci*ful, a. [Mercy + -ful.] 1. Full of mercy; having or exercising mercy; disposed to pity and spare offenders; unwilling to punish. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious. --Ex. xxxiv. 6. Be merciful, great duke, to men of mold. --Shak. 2. Unwilling to give pain; compassionate. A merciful man will be merciful to his beast. --Old Proverb. Syn: Compassionate; tender; humane; gracious; kind; mild; clement; benignant. -- Mer"ci*ful*ly, adv. -- Mer"ci*ful*ness, n.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. If you describe God or a person in a position of authority as merciful, you mean that they show kindness and forgiveness to people. We can only hope the court is merciful. ADJ 2. If you describe an event or situation as merciful, you mean that it is a good thing, especially because it stops someone's suffering or discomfort. Eventually the session came to a merciful end. ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Clement, lenient, pitiful, forgiving, gracious, compassionate. 2. Kind, compassionate, tender, benignant, mild, gentle, pitiful, tender-hearted, humane.

Moby Thesaurus

accepting, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-seeing, all-wise, almighty, beneficent, benign, benignant, big, bleeding, boundless, changeless, charitable, clement, commiserative, compassionate, condolent, considerate, creating, creative, easy, easygoing, eternal, eternally the same, everlasting, forbearant, forbearing, forgiving, generous, gentle, glorious, good, gracious, hallowed, highest, holy, human, humane, immortal, immutable, indulgent, infinite, just, kind, kindly, lax, lenient, liberal, limitless, loving, luminous, magnanimous, majestic, making, melting, mild, moderate, numinous, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, one, patient, permanent, perpetual, pitiful, pitying, radiant, ruth, ruthful, sacred, shaping, soft, softhearted, sovereign, sparing, supreme, sympathetic, sympathizing, tender, tenderhearted, thoughtful, timeless, tolerant, ubiquitous, unbounded, unchanging, undefined, understanding, unlimited, warmhearted