mercy
nounEtymology
From Middle English mercy, merci, from Anglo-Norman merci (compare continental Old French merci, mercit), from Latin mercēs (“wages, fee, price”), from merx (“wares, merchandise”). Displaced native Old English mildheortnes (literally "mildheartedness"). Cognate with French merci, whence the doublet merci.
Definitions
Relenting
Relenting; forbearance to cause or allow harm to another.
- She took mercy on him and quit embarrassing him.
Forgiveness or compassion, especially toward those less fortunate.
- Have mercy on the poor and assist them if you can.
- He despaired of God's mercy in the same fact, where this presumed of it; he by a decollation of all hope annihilated his mercy, this by an immoderancy thereof destroyed his justice
A tendency toward forgiveness, pity, or compassion.
- Mercy is one of his many virtues.
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Instances of forbearance or forgiveness.
- 1982, Bible (NKJV), Psalm 40:11a Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O Lord
A blessing
A blessing; something to be thankful for.
- It was a mercy that we were not inside when the roof collapsed
A children's game in which two players stand opposite with hands grasped and twist each…
A children's game in which two players stand opposite with hands grasped and twist each other's arms until one gives in.
To feel mercy
- I despised her; but I mercied her, too, and gave her sweet berries to eat, and led her to my lodge, and said to my best wife, ' Get up from my best skin, for the white squaw is a guest, and is weary.'
- At another time, forgetting "his verse," he attempted part of the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, by repeating, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be mercied!"
- There is not a less mercied pair of rogues within the walls of Ireland these days than you both.
To show mercy
To show mercy; to pardon or treat leniently because of mercy
- Remember that kid that kept yelling that his father was mercied?” “Mercied?” - “The kid that kept saying his father was killed?
- 'Hah! Good Samaritan indeed! Then why hasn't she mercied me all these years I've been begging for her pepper-soup on credit?
Expressing surprise or alarm.
- Mercy! Look at the state of you!
A female given name from English.
A surname from French.
The neighborhood
Derived
angel of mercy, at the mercy of, bemercy, Feast of the Divine Mercy, God-a-mercy, grand mercy, have mercy, house of mercy, lawks a-mercy, laws-a-mercy, may God have mercy on your soul, merciful, mercify, merciless, merciness, mercy bucket, mercy buckets, mercy chair, mercy flush, mercy fuck, mercy killer, mercy killing, mercy-killing, mercy me, mercy rule, mercy sake's alive, mercy seat, nonmercy, throw oneself on someone's mercy, unmercied, unmercy
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at mercy. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at mercy. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
10 hops · closes at mercy
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA