Handsome

4 definitions found

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

  Handsome \Hand"some\, v. t.
     To render handsome. [Obs.] --Donne
     [1913 Webster]

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



  Handsome \Hand"some\ (h[a^]n"s[u^]m; 277), a. [Compar.
     {Handsomer} (-[~e]r); superl. {Handsomest}.] [Hand + -some.
     It at first meant, dexterous; cf. D. handzaam dexterous,
     ready, limber, manageable, and E. handy.]
     1. Dexterous; skillful; handy; ready; convenient; -- applied
        to things as persons. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              That they [engines of war] be both easy to be
              carried and handsome to be moved and turned about.
                                                    --Robynson
                                                    (Utopia).
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              For a thief it is so handsome as it may seem it was
              first invented for him.               --Spenser.
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     2. Agreeable to the eye or to correct taste; having a
        pleasing appearance or expression; attractive; having
        symmetry and dignity; comely; -- expressing more than
        pretty, and less than beautiful; as, a handsome man or
        woman; a handsome garment, house, tree, horse.
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     3. Suitable or fit in action; marked with propriety and ease;
        graceful; becoming; appropriate; as, a handsome style,
        etc.
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              Easiness and handsome address in writing. --Felton.
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     4. Evincing a becoming generosity or nobleness of character;
        liberal; generous.
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              Handsome is as handsome does.         --Old Proverb.
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     5. Ample; moderately large.
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              He . . . accumulated a handsome sum of money. --V.
                                                    Knox.
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     {To do the handsome thing}, to act liberally. [Colloq.]
  
     Syn: {Handsome}, {Pretty}.
  
     Usage: Pretty applies to things comparatively small, which
            please by their delicacy and grace; as, a pretty girl,
            a pretty flower, a pretty cottage. Handsome rises
            higher, and is applied to objects on a larger scale.
            We admire what is handsome, we are pleased with what
            is pretty. The word is connected with hand, and has
            thus acquired the idea of training, cultivation,
            symmetry, and proportion, which enters so largely into
            our conception of handsome. Thus Drayton makes mention
            of handsome players, meaning those who are well
            trained; and hence we speak of a man's having a
            handsome address, which is the result of culture; of a
            handsome horse or dog, which implies well proportioned
            limbs; of a handsome face, to which, among other
            qualities, the idea of proportion and a graceful
            contour are essential; of a handsome tree, and a
            handsome house or villa. So, from this idea of
            proportion or suitableness, we have, with a different
            application, the expressions, a handsome fortune, a
            handsome offer.
            [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  handsome
       adj 1: pleasing in appearance especially by reason of conformity to
              ideals of form and proportion; "a fine-looking woman";
              "a good-looking man"; "better-looking than her
              sister"; "very pretty but not so extraordinarily
              handsome"- Thackeray; "our southern women are
              well-favored"- Lillian Hellman [syn: {fine-looking}, {good-looking},
               {better-looking}, {well-favored}, {well-favoured}]
       2: given or giving freely; "was a big tipper"; "the bounteous
          goodness of God"; "bountiful compliments"; "a freehanded
          host"; "a handsome allowance"; "Saturday's child is loving
          and giving"; "a liberal backer of the arts"; "a munificent
          gift"; "her fond and openhanded grandfather" [syn: {big},
          {bighearted}, {bounteous}, {bountiful}, {freehanded}, {giving},
           {liberal}, {openhanded}]

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

  80 Moby Thesaurus words for "handsome":
     abundant, aesthetic, aesthetically appealing, ample, attractive,
     august, beauteous, beautiful, big, bighearted, bonny, bounteous,
     bountiful, chic, chivalrous, comely, considerable, dashing,
     elegant, elevated, endowed with beauty, exalted, exquisite,
     eye-filling, fair, fashionable, fine, flowerlike, free, freehanded,
     freehearted, generous, giving, good, good-looking, goodly,
     graceful, gracile, gracious, great, great of heart, greathearted,
     heavy, heroic, high, high-minded, hospitable, idealistic, knightly,
     large, largehearted, lavish, liberal, lofty, lovely, magnanimous,
     majestic, modish, munificent, noble, noble-minded, open,
     openhanded, openhearted, pretty, princely, profuse,
     pulchritudinous, sizeable, smart, stately, stintless, stylish,
     sublime, substantial, ungrudging, unselfish, unsparing, unstinted,
     unstinting