gracious
part of speech
adjective (gracious, more gracious, most gracious); exclamation (gracious!, goodness gracious!)
meaning for a pupil
1) Kind, polite and generous, especially to people who have less power. tree →
2) Graceful, comfortable and elegant: gracious living. tree →
3) (exclamation, old-fashioned) Gracious! or Goodness gracious! shows surprise. tree →
4) (church) Full of mercy and kindness, as when Christians say God is gracious. tree →
sense in the lessons
In stories it describes a polite host, a kind queen or a good loser; in church language it describes God's mercy. Phrases: a gracious host, gracious in defeat, goodness gracious, good gracious me.
examples
- The queen was gracious to everyone she met. tree →
- Be gracious in defeat and shake hands with the winners. tree →
- Goodness gracious, look at the mess in here! tree →
- Our host was gracious and made us feel at home. tree →
- Christians believe God is gracious and forgiving. tree →
- They lived in a gracious old house with big gardens. tree →
- Thank you, that's very gracious of you. tree →
note
Opposite: ungracious or rude. Noun: grace; adverb: graciously. Goodness gracious! is an old-fashioned, polite way to show surprise, often used by grandparents. Do not confuse with graceful (moving beautifully).
In the corpora
- The LORD make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee;
- Be gracious unto me, O LORD, for I languish away; heal me, O LORD, for my bones are affrighted.
- Turn Thee unto me, and be gracious unto me; for I am solitary and afflicted.
- But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity; redeem me, and be gracious unto me.
- Hear, O LORD, when I call with my voice, and be gracious unto me, and answer me.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «gracious» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.