Ingenuous

3 definitions found

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

  Ingenuous \In*gen"u*ous\, a. [L. ingenuus inborn, innate,
     freeborn, noble, frank; pref. in- in + the root of gignere to
     beget. See {Genius}, and cf. {Ingenious}.]
     1. Of honorable extraction; freeborn; noble; as, ingenuous
        blood of birth.
        [1913 Webster]


  
     2. Noble; generous; magnanimous; honorable; upright;
        high-minded; as, an ingenuous ardor or zeal.
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              If an ingenuous detestation of falsehood be but
              carefully and early instilled, that is the true and
              genuine method to obviate dishonesty. --Locke.
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     3. Free from reserve, disguise, equivocation, or
        dissimulation; open; frank; as, an ingenuous man; an
        ingenuous declaration, confession, etc.
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              Sensible in myself . . . what a burden it is for me,
              who would be ingenuous, to be loaded with courtesies
              which he hath not the least hope to requite or
              deserve.                              --Fuller.
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     4. Ingenious. [Obs.] --Shak.
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     Note: (Formerly) printers did not discriminate between . . .
           ingenuous and ingenious, and these words were used or
           rather printed interchangeably almost to the beginning
           of the eighteenth century. --G. P. Marsh.
  
     Syn: Open; frank; unreserved; artless; plain; sincere;
          candid; fair; noble; generous.
  
     Usage: {Ingenuous}, {Open}, {Frank}. One who is open speaks
            out at once what is uppermost in his mind; one who is
            frank does it from a natural boldness, or dislike of
            self-restraint; one who is ingenuous is actuated by a
            native simplicity and artlessness, which make him
            willing to confess faults, and make known his
            sentiments without reserve. See {Candid}.
            [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  ingenuous
       adj 1: characterized by an inability to mask your feelings; not
              devious; "an ingenuous admission of responsibility"
              [syn: {artless}] [ant: {disingenuous}]
       2: lacking in sophistication or worldliness; "a child's
          innocent stare"; "his ingenuous explanation that he would
          not have burned the church if he had not thought the
          bishop was in it" [syn: {innocent}]

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

  115 Moby Thesaurus words for "ingenuous":
     artless, bluff, blunt, bold, born yesterday, broad, brusque,
     budding, callow, candid, childlike, confiding, cullible,
     deceivable, deludable, dewy, direct, downright, dupable, easy,
     explicit, exploitable, fair, fair and square, foolable, forthright,
     frank, frankhearted, free, free-speaking, free-spoken,
     free-tongued, genuine, green, growing, guileless, gullible,
     heart-to-heart, hoaxable, honest, honorable, hoodwinkable,
     humbugable, immature, impubic, inexperienced, ingenu, innocent,
     intact, juicy, just, minor, naive, natural, new-fledged,
     on the level, open, openhearted, outspoken, persuadable, plain,
     plain-spoken, raw, ripening, round, sappy, seduceable, simple,
     simplehearted, simpleminded, sincere, single-hearted,
     single-minded, soft, straight, straight-out, straightforward,
     suggestible, tender, transparent, trustful, trusting, trustworthy,
     unabashed, unadult, unaffected, unartificial, unchecked,
     uncomplicated, unconstrained, undeceitful, undeceptive, underage,
     undeveloped, undissembling, unequivocal, unfeigning, unfledged,
     unformed, unguarded, uninhibited, unlicked, unmellowed, unreserved,
     unrestrained, unripe, unschooled, unseasoned, unsophisticated,
     unstudied, unsuspicious, unwary, vernal, victimizable, virginal