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GOODWILL
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A disposition to kindness and compassion
Example:
the victor's grace in treating the vanquished
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("goodwill" is a kind of...):
good nature (a cheerful, obliging disposition)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The friendly hope that something will succeed
Synonyms:
good will; goodwill
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("goodwill" is a kind of...):
friendliness (a feeling of liking for another person; enjoyment in their company)
Sense 3
Meaning:
(accounting) an intangible asset valued according to the advantage or reputation a business has acquired (over and above its tangible assets)
Synonyms:
good will; goodwill
Classified under:
Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession
Hypernyms ("goodwill" is a kind of...):
intangible; intangible asset (assets that are saleable though not material or physical)
Domain category:
accounting (a system that provides quantitative information about finances)
Context examples:
Many showed themselves obliging, and amiable too; and I discovered amongst them not a few examples of natural politeness, and innate self-respect, as well as of excellent capacity, that won both my goodwill and my admiration.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Susan had an open, sensible countenance; she was like William, and Fanny hoped to find her like him in disposition and goodwill towards herself.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
All that remained to be wished was, that the nephew should form the attachment, as, with all her goodwill in the cause, Emma could feel no certainty of its being already formed.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
This was placing her in a very uncomfortable situation, and she felt great compassion for Captain Tilney, without being able to hope for his goodwill.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
He held out his sacred snuff-box to me as he spoke, as a solemn pledge of his goodwill, and, as I look back at him, there is no moment at which I see him more plainly than that with the old mischievous light dancing once more in his large intolerant eyes, one thumb in the armpit of his vest, and the little shining box held out upon his snow-white palm.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
And if that some one should be the very he whom, of all others, I could least bear—but I will not stay to rob myself of all your compassionate goodwill, by shewing that where I have most injured I can least forgive.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Miss Bennet's pleasing manners grew on the goodwill of Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley; and though the mother was found to be intolerable, and the younger sisters not worth speaking to, a wish of being better acquainted with them was expressed towards the two eldest.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
His readiness, however, in agreeing to dine at the Parsonage, when the general invitation was at last hazarded, after many debates and many doubts as to whether it were worth while, because Sir Thomas seemed so ill inclined, and Lady Bertram was so indolent! proceeded from good-breeding and goodwill alone, and had nothing to do with Mr. Crawford, but as being one in an agreeable group: for it was in the course of that very visit that he first began to think that any one in the habit of such idle observations would have thought that Mr. Crawford was the admirer of Fanny Price.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Every feeling was offended; and the forbearance of her outward submission left a heavy arrear due of secret severity in her reflections on the unmanageable goodwill of Mr. Weston's temper.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Though his looks did not please her, his name was a passport to her goodwill, and she thought with sincere compassion of his approaching disappointment; for, in spite of what she had believed herself to overhear in the pump-room, his behaviour was so incompatible with a knowledge of Isabella's engagement that she could not, upon reflection, imagine him aware of it.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
