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HANDSOME
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Pleasing in appearance especially by reason of conformity to ideals of form and proportion
Example:
our southern women are well-favored
Synonyms:
better-looking; fine-looking; good-looking; handsome; well-favored; well-favoured
Classified under:
Similar:
beautiful (delighting the senses or exciting intellectual or emotional admiration)
Derivation:
handsomeness (the quality of having regular well-defined features (especially of a man))
Sense 2
Meaning:
Given or giving freely
Example:
her fond and openhanded grandfather
Synonyms:
big; bighearted; bounteous; bountiful; freehanded; giving; handsome; liberal; openhanded
Classified under:
Similar:
generous (willing to give and share unstintingly)
Context examples:
He must love such a handsome, noble, witty, accomplished lady; and probably she loves him, or, if not his person, at least his purse.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
She had no demands on her father or sister, and her consequence was just enough increased by their handsome drawing-rooms.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Perhaps some would say she was very handsome. ‘Oh, officer, do let me have a peep!’ says she.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and often twice.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The house was large and handsome; and the Middletons lived in a style of equal hospitality and elegance.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
His face was pale and handsome, with a prominent chin, a jutting nose, and large blue staring eyes, in which a sort of dancing, mischievous light was for ever playing.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Elizabeth honoured him for such feelings, and thought him handsomer than ever as he expressed them.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
We were ushered into a dim-lit drawing-room, where an instant later we were joined by a very tall, handsome, light-bearded man of fifty, the younger brother of the dead scientist.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“I look to see some handsome joisting,” said Don Pedro, who rode with the King of Majorca upon the right of the prince, while Chandos was on the left.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I've always liked you, I have, for a lad of spirit, and the picter of my own self when I was young and handsome.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
