Merciful

3 definitions found

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

  Merciful \Mer"ci*ful\, a. [Mercy + -ful.]
     1. Full of mercy; having or exercising mercy; disposed to
        pity and spare offenders; unwilling to punish. Opposite of
        {merciless}.
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              The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious. --Ex.
                                                    xxxiv. 6.
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              Be merciful, great duke, to men of mold. --Shak.
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     2. Unwilling to give pain; compassionate.
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              A merciful man will be merciful to his beast. --Old
                                                    Proverb.
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     Syn: Compassionate; tender; humane; gracious; kind; mild;
          clement; benignant.
          [1913 Webster] -- {Mer"ci*ful*ly}, adv. --
          {Mer"ci*ful*ness}, n.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  merciful
       adj 1: showing or giving mercy; "sought merciful treatment for the
              captives"; "a merciful god" [ant: {merciless}]
       2: characterized by mercy, and compassion; "compassionate
          toward disadvantaged people"; "kind to animals"; "a humane
          judge" [syn: {kind}]
       3: used conventionally of royalty and high nobility; "our
          merciful king"

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

  92 Moby Thesaurus words for "merciful":
     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