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BENIGNANT
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Pleasant and beneficial in nature or influence
Example:
the benign influence of pure air
Synonyms:
benign; benignant
Classified under:
Similar:
kindly (pleasant and agreeable)
Also:
harmless (not causing or capable of causing harm)
kind (having or showing a tender and considerate and helpful nature; used especially of persons and their behavior)
Attribute:
benignancy; benignity; graciousness (the quality of being kind and gentle)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Characterized by kindness and warm courtesy especially of a king to his subjects
Example:
our benignant king
Synonyms:
benignant; gracious
Classified under:
Similar:
kind (having or showing a tender and considerate and helpful nature; used especially of persons and their behavior)
Context examples:
I used to enjoy a chance meeting with you, Jane, at this time: there was a curious hesitation in your manner: you glanced at me with a slight trouble—a hovering doubt: you did not know what my caprice might be—whether I was going to play the master and be stern, or the friend and be benignant.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I cut and handed the sweet seed-cake—the little sisters had a bird-like fondness for picking up seeds and pecking at sugar; Miss Lavinia looked on with benignant patronage, as if our happy love were all her work; and we were perfectly contented with ourselves and one another.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I loved her none the less; I thought of her as the same benignant, gentle angel in my life; I reproached myself, not her, with having done him an injury; and I would have made him any atonement if I had known what to make, and how to make it.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
