Mercifulness

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]:

  mercifulness
       n 1: the feeling that motivates compassion [syn: {mercy}]
       2: a disposition to be kind and forgiving; "in those days a
          wife had to depend on the mercifulness of her husband"
          [syn: {mercy}] [ant: {mercilessness}]
       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}, {mercy}]

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

  29 Moby Thesaurus words for "mercifulness":
     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