Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Merciful disposition; forgiving pity or kindness.
  • A dagger used by a knight to put a wounded man out of his misery (to give the coup de grâce).
  • Same as miserere.
  • Relaxation of monastic rule; indulgence.
  • An apartment in a monastery in which certain relaxations of the rule were permitted; especially, one in which those monks ate to whom special allowances were made in food and drink.

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

  • noun obsolete Compassion; pity; mercy.
  • noun (Anc. Armor.) Same as Misericordia, 2.

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

  • noun an act of clemency; pity, mercy.
  • noun a misericord.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Established 1200–50 from Middle English misericorde ("an act of clemency"), from Middle French, from Latin misericordia ("pity")

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Examples

  • Compassion, condolence, commiseration, or pity, is no other thing than an affection which makes us share in the suffering and sorrow of him whom we love, drawing the misery which he endures into our heart; whence it is called misericorde, or, as it were, misere de cœur: as complacency draws into the lover's heart the pleasures and contentments of the thing beloved.

    Treatise on the Love of God 1567-1622 1884

  • The "Lai d'Aristote," which occurred in the exterior carvings, is repeated here on the misericorde which is the ninth of the top row on the southern side.

    The Story of Rouen Theodore Andrea Cook 1897

  • “Comtesse, a tout peche misericorde,” * said a fair-haired young man with a long face and nose, as he entered the room.

    War and Peace 2003

  • And therefore the priest in this orison speaking for all sinners, having hope on the misericorde and mercy of God, he prayeth that we may have the perdurable or everlasting life with the company of the apostles, of martyrs, and with all the holy saints in heaven.

    The Golden Legend, vol. 7 1230-1298 1900

  • And because that he wist well and knew that chastity in delices, pity in riches, and humility in honour often perish, he took and gave his courage to sobriety and good diet, to humility and misericorde, keeping himself right curiously from the pricking sautes and watch of the world, the flesh and the devil, and chastised his body and brought it to servitude by the ensample of the apostles.

    The Golden Legend, vol. 7 1230-1298 1900

  • And God, father of misericorde, willing himself showed wonderful and marvellous on his saint, gave and betook the same king, champion, or defensor of the faith, into the hands of the evil paymms, to the end that he should appear more marvellous.

    The Golden Legend, vol. 7 1230-1298 1900

  • It may not be recounted, ne never it was seen in our time, the great charity, pity, and misericorde that he had towards the poor indigent and suffretous, towards the widows and to the poor children both father - and motherless all the time of his life.

    The Golden Legend, vol. 7 1230-1298 1900

  • And howbeit that to all indigent he opened the bosom of misericorde, nevertheless to them that watched in divine services, and that prayed for souls, he made greater alms and ofter.

    The Golden Legend, vol. 7 1230-1298 1900

  • Ghost are called by these words only, Kyrie eleison, for cause that they be of one nature, and the misericorde of God the Son is called by this other word here, Christe eleison.

    The Golden Legend, vol. 7 1230-1298 1900

  • Nous croyons que le commencement et la fin du salut, la nouvelle naissance, la foi, la sanctification, la perseverance, sont un don gratuit de la misericorde divine; le vrai croyant ayant ete elu en

    The Creeds of the Evangelical Protestant Churches. 1889

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