Adjacent Words

Mercifulness definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

MER'CIFULNESS, n. Tenderness towards offenders; willingness to forbear punishment; readiness to forgive.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the feeling that motivates compassion [syn: mercifulness, mercy]
2: a disposition to be kind and forgiving; "in those days a wife had to depend on the mercifulness of her husband" [syn: mercifulness, mercy] [ant: mercilessness, unmercifulness]
3: leniency and compassion shown toward offenders by a person or agency charged with administering justice; "he threw himself on the mercy of the court" [syn: clemency, mercifulness, mercy]

Merriam Webster's

noun see merciful

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.

Moby Thesaurus

acceptance, bleeding heart, bowels of compassion, clemency, clementness, compassion, compassionateness, easiness, easygoingness, forbearance, forbearing, gentleness, humaneness, humanity, laxness, lenience, leniency, lenientness, lenity, mercy, mildness, moderateness, patience, pity, ruthfulness, softheartedness, softness, tenderness, tolerance