Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Favorable; beneficial.
- adjective Kind and gracious.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Kind; gracious; favorable: as, a benignant sovereign.
- Exerting a good, kindly, or softening influence; salutary; beneficial: as, the benignant influences of Christianity on the mind.
- In medicine, not malignant; not dangerous: said of diseases.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Kind; gracious; favorable.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Kind ;gracious ;favorable .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective characterized by kindness and warm courtesy especially of a king to his subjects
- adjective pleasant and beneficial in nature or influence
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Some persons may still recall the benignant appearance of the late venerable Sir Archibald Macdonald, Lord Chief Baron of the Court of
Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745 Volume III. Mrs. Thomson
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Whether it were fibrous or albuminous, "benignant" or "malignant," he was not able in his first diagnosis to determine.
Danger 1847
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She was on the opposite side of the fountain, and stood gazing on him with calmness, and with a kind of benignant curiosity: The garden, the kiosk, the falling waters, recalled the past, which flashed over his mind almost at the moment when he beheld the beautiful apparition.
Tancred Or, The New Crusade Benjamin Disraeli 1842
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Finally if you do not die, your loving wife — who has not slept during the whole three weeks of your illness (a fact of which she will constantly remind you) — will fall ill in her turn, waste away, suffer much, and become even more incapable of any useful pursuit than she was before; while by the time that you have regained your normal state of health she will express to you her self-sacrificing affection only by shedding around you a kind of benignant dullness which involuntarily communicates itself both to yourself and to every one else in your vicinity.
Youth 2003
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Finally if you do not die, your loving wife -- who has not slept during the whole three weeks of your illness (a fact of which she will constantly remind you) -- will fall ill in her turn, waste away, suffer much, and become even more incapable of any useful pursuit than she was before; while by the time that you have regained your normal state of health she will express to you her self-sacrificing affection only by shedding around you a kind of benignant dullness which involuntarily communicates itself both to yourself and to every one else in your vicinity.
Youth Leo Tolstoy 1869
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At last Judge Blount looked across the table with benignant and fatherly pity.
Chapter 37 2010
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She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example.
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Not alone were they nimble because of the westing, but a benignant sun was shining down and limbering their stiff bodies.
MAKE WESTING 2010
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She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example.
President Can't Cut Constellation Without Congressional Approval | Universe Today 2010
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She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example.
The Chosen Peoples Todd Gitlin 2010
ruzuzu commented on the word benignant
"Synonyms Benignant, Gracious, Benign, Kind, Good-natured. Benignant and gracious are generally applied to superiors, and imply especially a certain manner of kindness or favor. Benignant is more tender or gentle; gracious is more civil or condescending; both are winning. Benign has largely given up to benignant the associations with activity or manner, and is applied especially to looks and influences: as, a benign smile. Kind often implies some superiority of circumstances on the part of the person acting: thus, we do not speak of a servant as being kind to his master, unless the latter is ill or otherwise made dependent on his servant for aid. A good-natured person is one who is not only willing to oblige, but will put up with a good deal of annoyance. Kind implies discrimination in benevolence; good-natured does not, but often implies a weakness for indiscriminate giving to those who solicit help or favors."
--Cent. Dict.
I note that the word "nice" is not mentioned.
August 20, 2012
qms commented on the word benignant
No matter how clearly malignant
The Trumpies think their man's benignant,
But cite, if you dare,
Preposterous hair
And see them all rise up indignant.
May 27, 2016