English Synonyms and Antonyms by James Champlin Fernald (best ebook reader for laptop TXT) 📕

temptation, endurance to resist hunger and cold. Compare BRAVE; PATIENCE. FORTUNATE. Synonyms: favored, lucky, prospered, prosperous, successful. happy,

A man is successful in any case if he achieves or gains what he seeks; he is known as a successful man if he has achieved or gained worthy objects of endeavor; he is fortunate or lucky if advantages have come to him without or beyond his direct planning or achieving. Lucky is the more common and colloquial, fortunate the more elegant word; fortunate is more naturally applied to the graver matters, as we speak of the fortunate, rather than the lucky, issue of a great battle; lucky more strongly emphasizes the element of chance, as when we speak of a lucky hit, a lucky guess, or of one as "born under a lucky star." Favored is used in a religious sense, implying that one is the object of divine favor. Happy, in this connection, signifies possessed of the means of happiness. One is said to be happy or prosperous whether his prosperity be the result of fortune or of achievement; prospered rather denotes the action of a superintending Providence.

Antonyms: broken, fallen, miserable, unhappy, woful, crushed, ill-starred, unfortunate, unlucky, wretched. FRAUD. Synonyms: artifice, deceit, duplicity, swindle, treason, cheat, deception, imposition, swindling, trick. cheating, dishonesty, imposture, treachery,

A fraud is an act of deliberate deception with the design of securing something by taking unfair advantage of another. A deceit or deception may be designed merely to gain some end of one's own, with no intent of harming another; an imposition, to take[178] some small advantage of another, or simply to make another ridiculous. An imposture is designed to obtain money, credit, or position to which one is not entitled, and may be practised by a street beggar or by the pretender to a throne. All action that is not honest is dishonesty, but the term dishonesty is generally applied in business, politics, etc., to deceitful practises which are not directly criminal. Fraud includes deceit, but deceit may not reach the gravity of fraud; a cheat is of the nature of fraud, but of a petty sort; a swindle is more serious than a cheat, involving larger values and more flagrant dishonesty. Fraud is commonly actionable at law; cheating and swindling are for the most part out of the reach of legal proceedings. Treachery is chiefly used of dishonesty in matters of friendship, social relations, government, or war; treachery may be more harmful than fraud, but is not so gross, and is not ordinarily open to legal redress. Treason is a specific form of treachery of a subject to the government to which he owes allegiance, and is definable and punishable at law. Compare ARTIFICE; DECEPTION.

Antonyms: fairness, good faith, honesty, integrity, truth, uprightness. FRIENDLY. Synonyms: accessible, companionable, genial, neighborly, affable, complaisant, hearty, sociable, affectionate, cordial, kind, social, amicable, favorable, kindly, tender, brotherly, fond, loving, well-disposed.

Friendly, as said of persons, signifies having the disposition of a friend; as said of acts, it signifies befitting or worthy of a friend. The adjective friendly does not reach the full significance of the nouns "friend" and "friendship;" one may be friendly to those who are not his friends, and to be in friendly relations often signifies little more than not to be hostile. In its application to persons, accessible is used of public and eminent persons, who might, if disposed, hold themselves at a distance from others. Companionable and sociable refer to manner and behavior, cordial and genial express genuine kindliness of heart. We speak of a cordial greeting, a favorable reception, a neighborly call, a sociable visitor, an amicable settlement, a kind interest, a friendly regard, a hearty welcome. The Saxon friendly is stronger than the Latin amicable; the amicable may be merely formal; the friendly is from the heart. Fond is commonly applied to an[179] affection that becomes, or at least appears, excessive. Affectionate, devoted, and tender are almost always used in a high and good sense; as, an affectionate son; a devoted friend; "the tender mercy of our God," Luke i, 78. Compare FRIENDSHIP.

Antonyms: adverse, bellicose, contentious, estranged, ill-disposed, unfriendly, alienated, belligerent, disaffected, frigid, indifferent, unkind, antagonistic, cold, distant, hostile, inimical, warlike. FRIENDSHIP. Synonyms: affection, comity, esteem, good will, amity, consideration, favor, love, attachment, devotion, friendliness, regard.

Friendship is a deep, quiet, enduring affection, founded upon mutual respect and esteem. Friendship is always mutual; there may be unreciprocated affection or attachment, unrequited love, or even unrecognized and unappreciated devotion, but never unreciprocated or unrequited friendship; one may have friendly feelings toward an enemy, but while there is hostility or coldness on one side there can not be friendship between the two. Friendliness is a quality of friendly feeling, without the deep and settled attachment implied in the state of friendship. Comity is mutual kindly courtesy, with care of each other's right, and amity a friendly feeling and relation, not necessarily implying special friendliness; as, the comity of nations, or amity between neighboring countries. Affection may be purely natural; friendship is a growth. Friendship is more intellectual and less emotional than love; it is easier to give reasons for friendship than for love; friendship is more calm and quiet, love more fervent; love often rises to intensest passion; we can not speak of the passion of friendship. Friendship implies some degree of equality, while love does not; we can speak of man's love toward God, not of his friendship for God. (There is more latitude in the use of the concrete noun friend; Abraham was called "the friend of God;" Christ was called "the friend of sinners.") Compare ACQUAINTANCE; LOVE.

Antonyms:

See synonyms for BATTLE; ENMITY; FEUD; HATRED.

Prepositions:

The friendship of one person for or toward another, or the friendship between them.

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FRIGHTEN. Synonyms: affright, appal, cow, dismay, scare, alarm, browbeat, daunt, intimidate, terrify.

One is frightened by a cause of fear addressed directly and suddenly to the senses; he is intimidated by an apprehension of contingent consequences dependent on some act of his own to be done or forborne; the means of intimidation may act through the senses, or may appeal only to the intellect or the sensibilities. The sudden rush of an armed madman may frighten; the quiet leveling of a highwayman's pistol intimidates. A savage beast is intimidated by the keeper's whip. Employers may intimidate their employees from voting contrary to their will by threat of discharge; a mother may be intimidated through fear for her child. To browbeat or cow is to bring into a state of submissive fear; to daunt is to give pause or check to a violent, threatening, or even a brave spirit. To scare is to cause sudden, unnerving fear; to terrify is to awaken fear that is overwhelming. Compare ALARM.

FRUGALITY. Synonyms: economy, parsimony, saving, sparing, miserliness, providence, scrimping, thrift. parsimoniousness, prudence,

Economy is a wise and careful administration of the means at one's disposal; frugality is a withholding of expenditure, or sparing of supplies or provision, to a noticeable and often to a painful degree; parsimony is excessive and unreasonable saving for the sake of saving. Frugality exalted into a virtue to be practised for its own sake, instead of as a means to an end, becomes the vice of parsimony. Miserliness is the denying oneself and others the ordinary comforts or even necessaries of life, for the mere sake of hoarding money. Prudence and providence look far ahead, and sacrifice the present to the future, saving as much as may be necessary for that end. (See PRUDENCE.) Thrift seeks not merely to save, but to earn. Economy manages, frugality saves, providence plans, thrift at once earns and saves, with a view to wholesome and profitable expenditure at a fitting time. See ABSTINENCE.

Antonyms: abundance, bounty, liberality, opulence, waste, affluence, extravagance, luxury, riches, wealth.

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GARRULOUS. Synonyms: chattering, loquacious, talkative, verbose.

Garrulous signifies given to constant trivial talking. Chattering signifies uttering rapid, noisy, and unintelligible, or scarcely intelligible, sounds, whether articulate words or such as resemble them; chattering is often used of vocal sounds that may be intelligible by themselves but are ill understood owing to confusion of many voices or other cause. The talkative person has a strong disposition to talk, with or without an abundance of words, or many ideas; the loquacious person has an abundant flow of language and much to say on any subject suggested; either may be lively and for a time entertaining; the garrulous person is tedious, repetitious, petty, and self-absorbed. Verbose is applied to utterances more formal than conversation, as to writings or public addresses. We speak of a chattering monkey or a chattering idiot, a talkative child, a talkative or loquacious woman, a garrulous old man, a verbose writer. Compare CIRCUMLOCUTION.

Antonyms: laconic, reserved, reticent, silent, speechless, taciturn. GENDER. Synonym: sex.

Sex is a distinction among living beings; it is also the characteristic by which most living beings are distinguished from inanimate things, which are of no sex; gender is a distinction in language partially corresponding to this distinction in nature; while there are but two sexes, there are in some languages, as in English and German, three genders. The French language has but two genders and makes the names of all inanimate objects either masculine or feminine; some languages are without the distinction of gender, and those that maintain it are often quite arbitrary in its application. We speak of the masculine or feminine gender, the male or female sex.

GENERAL. Synonyms: common, familiar, ordinary, universal, commonplace, frequent, popular, usual. customary, habitual, prevalent, everyday, normal, public,

Common signifies frequently occurring, not out of the regular[182] course, not exceptional; hence, not above the average, not excellent or distinguished, inferior, or even low; common also signifies pertaining to or participated in by two or more persons or things; as, sorrow is common to the race. General may signify pertaining equally to all of a class, race, etc., but very commonly signifies pertaining to the greater number, but not necessarily to all. Universal applies to all without exception; general applies to all with possible or comparatively slight exceptions; common applies to very many without deciding whether they are even a majority. A common remark is one we often hear; a general experience is one that comes to the majority of people; a universal experience is one from which no human being is exempt. It is dangerous for a debater to affirm a universal proposition, since that can be negatived by a single exception, while a general statement is not invalidated even by adducing many exceptions. We say a common opinion, common experience, a general rule, general truth, a universal law. Compare synonyms for NORMAL; USUAL.

Antonyms: exceptional, infrequent, rare, singular, uncommon, unknown, unusual. GENEROUS. Synonyms: bountiful, free, liberal, noble, chivalrous, free-handed, magnanimous, open-handed, disinterested, free-hearted, munificent, open-hearted.

Generous (L. genus, a race) primarily signifies having the qualities worthy of noble or honorable birth; hence, free and abundant in giving, giving freely, heartily, and self-sacrificingly. As regards giving, generous refers rather to the self-sacrificing heartiness of the giver, liberal to the amount of the gift; a child may show himself generous in the gift of an apple, a millionaire makes a liberal donation; a generous gift, however, is commonly thought of as both ample and hearty. A munificent gift is vast in amount, whatever the motive of its bestowal. One may be free with another's money; he can be generous only with his own. Disinterested suggests rather the thought of one's own self-denial; generous, of one's hearty interest in another's welfare or happiness. One is magnanimous by a greatness of soul (L. magnus, great, and animus, soul) that rises above all that is poor, mean, or weak, especially above every petty or ignoble motive or feeling pertaining to one's self, and thus above resentment[183] of injury or insult; one is generous by a kindness of heart that would rejoice in the welfare rather than in the punishment of the offender.

Antonyms: avaricious, covetous, ignoble, mean, niggardly, penurious, rapacious, close, greedy, illiberal, miserly, parsimonious, petty, stingy. GENIUS. Synonyms: