Generous

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Generous \Gen"er*ous\, a. [F. g['e]n['e]reux, fr. L. generous of
     noble birth, noble, excellent, magnanimous, fr. genus birth,
     race: cf. It. generoso. See 2d {Gender}.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. Of honorable birth or origin; highborn. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]


  
              The generous and gravest citizens.    --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Exhibiting those qualities which are popularly reregarded
        as belonging to high birth; noble; honorable; magnanimous;
        spirited; courageous. "The generous critic." --Pope. "His
        generous spouse." --Pope. "A generous pack [of hounds]."
        --Addison.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Open-handed; free to give; not close or niggardly;
        munificent; as, a generous friend or father.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. Characterized by generosity; abundant; overflowing; as, a
        generous table. --Swift.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     5. Full of spirit or strength; stimulating; exalting; as,
        generous wine.
  
     Syn: Magnanimous; bountiful. See {Liberal}. --
          {Gen"er*ous*ly}, adv. -- {Gen"er*ous*ness}, n.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  generous
       adj 1: willing to give and share unstintingly; "a generous
              donation" [ant: {stingy}]
       2: not petty in character and mind; "unusually generous in his
          judgment of people" [ant: {ungenerous}]
       3: more than adequate; "a generous portion"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  183 Moby Thesaurus words for "generous":
     abounding, abundant, accommodating, affable, affluent, agreeable,
     all-sufficing, almsgiving, altruistic, amiable, ample, aplenty,
     beneficent, benevolent, benign, benignant, big, bighearted,
     blooming, bottomless, bounteous, bountiful, broad, bursting,
     bursting out, capacious, charitable, chivalrous, complaisant,
     compliant, comprehensive, conciliatory, considerate, copious,
     cordial, countless, creative, decent, diffuse, disinterested,
     effuse, eleemosynary, elevated, epidemic, exalted, exhaustless,
     expansive, extensive, extravagant, exuberant, fair, fat, fecund,
     fertile, flourishing, flush, forbearant, forbearing, forgiving,
     free, freehanded, freehearted, friendly, fructiferous, fruitful,
     full, galore, genial, giving, good, gracious, great,
     great of heart, greathearted, handsome, hearty, helpful, heroic,
     high, high-minded, honest, hospitable, humane, humanitarian,
     idealistic, in plenty, in quantity, indulgent, inexhaustible, kind,
     kindhearted, kindly, knightly, large, largehearted, lavish,
     lenient, liberal, lofty, long-suffering, longanimous, lush,
     luxuriant, magnanimous, many, maximal, much, multitudinous,
     munificent, neighborly, noble, noble-minded, numerous, obliging,
     open, open-handed, openhanded, openhearted, opulent, overflowing,
     overindulgent, overpermissive, patient, permissive, philanthropic,
     placable, plenitudinous, plenteous, plentiful, plenty, pregnant,
     prevailing, prevalent, princely, prodigal, productive, profuse,
     profusive, proliferous, prolific, rampant, receptive, replete,
     rich, rife, riotous, running over, seminal, spacious, sparing,
     stintless, sublime, superabundant, swarming, teeming, thoughtful,
     thriving, tolerant, tolerating, uberous, ungrudging, unprejudiced,
     unresentful, unrevengeful, unselfish, unsparing, unstinted,
     unstinting, voluminous, warm, warmhearted, wealthy, welcoming,
     welfare, welfare statist, welfarist, well-found, well-furnished,
     well-provided, well-stocked, wholesale, wide, willing
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  GENEROUS, adj.  Originally this word meant noble by birth and was
  rightly applied to a great multitude of persons.  It now means noble
  by nature and is taking a bit of a rest.