| Library / English Dictionary |
LIBERALITY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The trait of being generous in behavior and temperament
Synonyms:
liberality; liberalness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("liberality" is a kind of...):
generosity; generousness (the trait of being willing to give your money or time)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "liberality"):
largess; largesse; magnanimity; munificence; openhandedness (liberality in bestowing gifts; extremely liberal and generous of spirit)
Antonym:
illiberality (a disposition not to be liberal (generous) with money)
Derivation:
liberal (given or giving freely)
Sense 2
Meaning:
An inclination to favor progress and individual freedom
Synonyms:
liberality; liberalness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("liberality" is a kind of...):
tolerance (willingness to recognize and respect the beliefs or practices of others)
Derivation:
liberal (having political or social views favoring reform and progress)
Context examples:
I told you, the other day, of his infamous behaviour to Mr. Darcy; and you yourself, when last at Longbourn, heard in what manner he spoke of the man who had behaved with such forbearance and liberality towards him.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
To take a dislike to a young man, only because he appeared to be of a different disposition from himself, was unworthy the real liberality of mind which she was always used to acknowledge in him; for with all the high opinion of himself, which she had often laid to his charge, she had never before for a moment supposed it could make him unjust to the merit of another.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
The whole family perceived it, and Mrs. Dashwood, attributing it to some want of liberality in his mother, sat down to table indignant against all selfish parents.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
As far as walking, talking, and contriving reached, she was thoroughly benevolent, and nobody knew better how to dictate liberality to others; but her love of money was equal to her love of directing, and she knew quite as well how to save her own as to spend that of her friends.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
He had strong feelings of family attachment and family honour, without pride or weakness; he lived with the liberality of a man of fortune, without display; he judged for himself in everything essential, without defying public opinion in any point of worldly decorum.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Mrs. Ferrars, with the utmost liberality, will come forward, and settle on him a thousand a year, if the match takes place.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
'We must persuade Henry to marry her,' said she; 'and what with honour, and the certainty of having shut himself out for ever from Fanny, I do not despair of it. Fanny he must give up. I do not think that even he could now hope to succeed with one of her stamp, and therefore I hope we may find no insuperable difficulty. My influence, which is not small shall all go that way; and when once married, and properly supported by her own family, people of respectability as they are, she may recover her footing in society to a certain degree. In some circles, we know, she would never be admitted, but with good dinners, and large parties, there will always be those who will be glad of her acquaintance; and there is, undoubtedly, more liberality and candour on those points than formerly. What I advise is, that your father be quiet. Do not let him injure his own cause by interference. Persuade him to let things take their course. If by any officious exertions of his, she is induced to leave Henry's protection, there will be much less chance of his marrying her than if she remain with him.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
To give you another instance of her liberality:—The other day, as soon as we came to town, aware that money could not be very plenty with us just now, she put bank-notes into Fanny's hands to the amount of two hundred pounds.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
After a few moments' chat, John Dashwood, recollecting that Fanny was yet uninformed of her sister's being there, quitted the room in quest of her; and Elinor was left to improve her acquaintance with Robert, who, by the gay unconcern, the happy self-complacency of his manner while enjoying so unfair a division of his mother's love and liberality, to the prejudice of his banished brother, earned only by his own dissipated course of life, and that brother's integrity, was confirming her most unfavourable opinion of his head and heart.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Though his eyes had been long opened, even before his acquaintance with Elinor began, to her ignorance and a want of liberality in some of her opinions—they had been equally imputed, by him, to her want of education; and till her last letter reached him, he had always believed her to be a well-disposed, good-hearted girl, and thoroughly attached to himself.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
