Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Physically attractive or appealing; pretty.
  • adjective Excellent.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Beautiful; fair or pleasant to look upon; pretty; fine.
  • Gay; merry; frolicsome; cheerful; blithe.
  • noun In mining, a mass of ore adjacent to a vein, but not distinctly connected with it; “a great collection of ore, without any vein coming into or going from it,” See carbona.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Handsome; beautiful; pretty; attractively lively and graceful.
  • adjective Gay; merry; frolicsome; cheerful; blithe.
  • noun (Mining) A round and compact bed of ore, or a distinct bed, not communicating with a vein.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Geordie Alternative spelling of bonnie.
  • noun mining A round and compact bed of ore, or a distinct bed, not communicating with a vein.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective very pleasing to the eye

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably ultimately from French bon, good, from Latin bonus; see deu- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English boni, probably from Old French bon, feminine bonne ("good"), from Latin bonus ("good"). See bounty, and compare bonus, boon.

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Examples

Comments

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  • very pleasing to the eye (also "bonnie").

    October 31, 2007

  • I thought this was Irish, but it's actually Scottish, which I guess is pretty close. "Bonnie lass" is fairly common phrase in Celtic music.

    October 31, 2007

  • A small quantity of anything. --Dr. Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary and Supplement, 1841.

    May 9, 2011