HONESTY

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The quality of being honest

Synonyms:

honestness; honesty

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("honesty" is a kind of...):

righteousness (adhering to moral principles)

Attribute:

square; straight (characterized by honesty and fairness)

corrupt; crooked (not straight; dishonest or immoral or evasive)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "honesty"):

scrupulousness (conformity to high standards of ethics or excellence)

integrity (moral soundness)

incorruption; incorruptness (characterized by integrity or probity)

incorruptibility (the incapability of being corrupted)

candidness; candor; candour; directness; forthrightness; frankness (the quality of being honest and straightforward in attitude and speech)

good faith; straightness (having honest intentions)

truthfulness (the quality of being truthful)

Antonym:

dishonesty (the quality of being dishonest)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Southeastern European plant cultivated for its fragrant purplish flowers and round flat papery silver-white seedpods that are used for indoor decoration

Synonyms:

honesty; Lunaria annua; money plant; satin flower; satinpod; silver dollar

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("honesty" is a kind of...):

herb; herbaceous plant (a plant lacking a permanent woody stem; many are flowering garden plants or potherbs; some having medicinal properties; some are pests)

Holonyms ("honesty" is a member of...):

genus Lunaria; Lunaria (small genus of European herbs: honesty)

Credits

Context examples:

It is in the form of a letter, and runs in this way: ‘My dear, dear son,—Now that approaching disgrace begins to darken the closing years of my life, I can write with all truth and honesty that it is not the terror of the law, it is not the loss of my position in the county, nor is it my fall in the eyes of all who have known me, which cuts me to the heart; but it is the thought that you should come to blush for me—you who love me and who have seldom, I hope, had reason to do other than respect me.’

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Her mistress had, as she confessed with distress, shown some irritability of temper towards her during their stay in Baden, and had even questioned her once as if she had suspicions of her honesty, and this had made the parting easier than it would otherwise have been.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For over twenty years, in the days of Jackson, Brain, Cribb, the Belchers, Pearce, Gully, and the rest, the leaders of the Ring were men whose honesty was above suspicion; and those were just the twenty years when the Ring may, as I have said, have served a national purpose.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The only duplicate which existed, so far as I knew, was that which belonged to my servant, Bannister—a man who has looked after my room for ten years, and whose honesty is absolutely above suspicion.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Satisfied with the honesty of his and the Kanaka’s sleep, Wolf Larsen passed on to the next two bunks on the starboard side, occupied top and bottom, as we saw in the light of the sea-lamp, by Leach and Johnson.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

She had little difficulty in understanding thus much of her rival's intentions, and while she was firmly resolved to act by her as every principle of honour and honesty directed, to combat her own affection for Edward and to see him as little as possible; she could not deny herself the comfort of endeavouring to convince Lucy that her heart was unwounded.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

But he had fancied her in love with him; that evidently must have been his dependence; and after raving a little about the seeming incongruity of gentle manners and a conceited head, Emma was obliged in common honesty to stop and admit that her own behaviour to him had been so complaisant and obliging, so full of courtesy and attention, as (supposing her real motive unperceived) might warrant a man of ordinary observation and delicacy, like Mr. Elton, in fancying himself a very decided favourite.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

They look upon fraud as a greater crime than theft, and therefore seldom fail to punish it with death; for they allege, that care and vigilance, with a very common understanding, may preserve a man’s goods from thieves, but honesty has no defence against superior cunning; and, since it is necessary that there should be a perpetual intercourse of buying and selling, and dealing upon credit, where fraud is permitted and connived at, or has no law to punish it, the honest dealer is always undone, and the knave gets the advantage.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Your degree of respect for honesty, rich or poor, is precisely what I have no manner of concern with.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

So did I. Traddles thanked us both, by saying, with a simplicity and honesty I had sense enough to be quite charmed with, I am very much obliged to you indeed.