BENIGNANT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does benignant mean? 

• BENIGNANT (adjective)
  The adjective BENIGNANT has 2 senses:

1. pleasant and beneficial in nature or influence

2. characterized by kindness and warm courtesy especially of a king to his subjects

  Familiarity information: BENIGNANT used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BENIGNANT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Pleasant and beneficial in nature or influence

Synonyms:

benign; benignant

Context example:

the benign influence of pure air

Similar:

kindly (pleasant and agreeable)

Also:

harmless (not causing or capable of causing harm)

kind (having or showing a tender and considerate and helpful nature; used especially of persons and their behavior)

Attribute:

benignancy; benignity; graciousness (the quality of being kind and gentle)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Characterized by kindness and warm courtesy especially of a king to his subjects

Synonyms:

benignant; gracious

Context example:

our benignant king

Similar:

kind (having or showing a tender and considerate and helpful nature; used especially of persons and their behavior)

 Context examples 

This remark was not calculated to make Edward or Elinor more easy, nor to conciliate the good will of Lucy, who looked up at Marianne with no very benignant expression.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

He had a fatherly, benignant way of showing his fondness for her, which seemed in itself to express a good man.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

No notice was taken of Amy's flight, except by her mates, but the sharp-eyed demoiselles discovered that Mr. Davis was quite benignant in the afternoon, also unusually nervous.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

As His disciple I adopt His pure, His merciful, His benignant doctrines.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

At last Judge Blount looked across the table with benignant and fatherly pity.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He was nursing the baby, and appeared to be a benignant member of society.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

With tears and prayers and tender hands, Mother and sisters made her ready for the long sleep that pain would never mar again, seeing with grateful eyes the beautiful serenity that soon replaced the pathetic patience that had wrung their hearts so long, and feeling with reverent joy that to their darling death was a benignant angel, not a phantom full of dread.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Seen now, in broad daylight, she looked tall, fair, and shapely; brown eyes with a benignant light in their irids, and a fine pencilling of long lashes round, relieved the whiteness of her large front; on each of her temples her hair, of a very dark brown, was clustered in round curls, according to the fashion of those times, when neither smooth bands nor long ringlets were in vogue; her dress, also in the mode of the day, was of purple cloth, relieved by a sort of Spanish trimming of black velvet; a gold watch (watches were not so common then as now) shone at her girdle.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I had often admired, as I have elsewhere described, his benignant manner towards his youthful wife; but the respectful tenderness he manifested in every reference to her on this occasion, and the almost reverential manner in which he put away from him the lightest doubt of her integrity, exalted him, in my eyes, beyond description.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

As she lifted the curtain to look out into the dreary night, the moon broke suddenly from behind the clouds and shone upon her like a bright, benignant face, which seemed to whisper in the silence, Be comforted, dear soul!

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)