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GOOD NATURE
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A cheerful, obliging disposition
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("good nature" is a kind of...):
disposition; temperament (your usual mood)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "good nature"):
good will; goodwill; grace (a disposition to kindness and compassion)
forbearance; longanimity; patience (good-natured tolerance of delay or incompetence)
easygoingness (being without worry or concern)
risibility (a disposition to laugh)
Antonym:
ill nature (a disagreeable, irritable, or malevolent disposition)
Context examples:
When he left the car, he strode along the sidewalk as a wrathful man will stride, and he rang the Morse bell with such viciousness that it roused him to consciousness of his condition, so that he entered in good nature, smiling with amusement at himself.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Traddles still remained, perhaps, but it was very doubtful; and I had not sufficient confidence in his discretion or good luck, however strong my reliance was on his good nature, to wish to trust him with my situation.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Nig, equally friendly, though less demonstrative, was a huge black dog, half bloodhound and half deerhound, with eyes that laughed and a boundless good nature.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
Catherine, though a little disappointed, had too much good nature to make any opposition, and the others rising up, Isabella had only time to press her friend's hand and say, Good-bye, my dear love, before they hurried off.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
The youthful infatuation of nineteen would naturally blind him to every thing but her beauty and good nature; but the four succeeding years—years, which if rationally spent, give such improvement to the understanding, must have opened his eyes to her defects of education, while the same period of time, spent on her side in inferior society and more frivolous pursuits, had perhaps robbed her of that simplicity which might once have given an interesting character to her beauty.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
So poor Meg sang and rocked, told stories and tried every sleep-prevoking wile she could devise, but all in vain, the big eyes wouldn't shut, and long after Daisy had gone to byelow, like the chubby little bunch of good nature she was, naughty Demi lay staring at the light, with the most discouragingly wide-awake expression of countenance.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
A monstrous deal of good nature, and it is not only good nature, but you have so much, so much of everything; and then you have such—upon my soul, I do not know anybody like you.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
Well, then, I only meant that your attributing my brother's wish of dancing with Miss Thorpe to good nature alone convinced me of your being superior in good nature yourself to all the rest of the world.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
