| / English Dictionary |
HANDSOMELY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
In a generously handsome manner
Example:
India has responded handsomely by providing 3,000 men
Classified under:
Pertainym:
handsome (given or giving freely)
Sense 2
Meaning:
In an attractively handsome manner
Example:
the volume was handsomely bound
Classified under:
Pertainym:
handsome (pleasing in appearance especially by reason of conformity to ideals of form and proportion)
Context examples:
As to her being a person of refinement and well dressed, they are, as you perceive, handsomely mounted in solid gold, and it is inconceivable that anyone who wore such glasses could be slatternly in other respects.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He sent Mrs. Fairfax, the housekeeper, away to her friends at a distance; but he did it handsomely, for he settled an annuity on her for life: and she deserved it—she was a very good woman.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Clear your character handsomely before her.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
Peggotty had a basket of refreshments on her knee, which would have lasted us out handsomely, if we had been going to London by the same conveyance.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
He told her that he had been impatient to leave the dining-room—hated sitting long—was always the first to move when he could—that his father, Mr. Knightley, Mr. Cox, and Mr. Cole, were left very busy over parish business—that as long as he had staid, however, it had been pleasant enough, as he had found them in general a set of gentlemanlike, sensible men; and spoke so handsomely of Highbury altogether—thought it so abundant in agreeable families—that Emma began to feel she had been used to despise the place rather too much.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
It was made, however, at last: a silver knife was bought for Betsey, and accepted with great delight, its newness giving it every advantage over the other that could be desired; Susan was established in the full possession of her own, Betsey handsomely declaring that now she had got one so much prettier herself, she should never want that again; and no reproach seemed conveyed to the equally satisfied mother, which Fanny had almost feared to be impossible.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
As we went along, Kitty and I drew up the blinds, and pretended there was nobody in the coach; and I should have gone so all the way, if Kitty had not been sick; and when we got to the George, I do think we behaved very handsomely, for we treated the other three with the nicest cold luncheon in the world, and if you would have gone, we would have treated you too.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Her intimacy there had made him seriously determine on her being handsomely legacied hereafter; and to speak of her therefore as the almost acknowledged future heiress of Fullerton naturally followed.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
When I dined regularly and handsomely, I had a saveloy and a penny loaf, or a fourpenny plate of red beef from a cook's shop; or a plate of bread and cheese and a glass of beer, from a miserable old public-house opposite our place of business, called the Lion, or the Lion and something else that I have forgotten.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Mr. Weston had accompanied her to Mrs. Bates's, and gone through his share of this essential attention most handsomely; but she having then induced Miss Fairfax to join her in an airing, was now returned with much more to say, and much more to say with satisfaction, than a quarter of an hour spent in Mrs. Bates's parlour, with all the encumbrance of awkward feelings, could have afforded.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
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