good-natured

See also: good natured and goodnatured

English

Alternative forms

• good natured, goodnatured

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡʊdˈneɪtʃəd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

good-natured (comparative more good-natured or better-natured, superlative most good-natured or best-natured)

1. Having or showing an amicable, kindly disposition.
   • 1820, [Walter Scott], chapter I, in The Abbot. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 22:

     “It is singular,” said the Lady, addressing Warden; “the animal is not only so good-natured to all, but so particularly fond of children. […]”

   • 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Three. The Second of the Three Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 81:

     For the people who were shovelling away on the house-tops were jovial and full of glee; calling out to one another from the parapets, and now and then exchanging a facetious snowball—better-natured missile far than many a wordy jest—laughing heartily if it went right, and not less heartily if it went wrong.

   • 1852, [Richard Hildreth], chapter LI, in The White Slave; or, Memoirs of a Fugitive, Boston, Mass.: Tappan and Whittemore; Milwaukee, Wis.: Rood and Whittemore, page 332:

     There are a good many of these girls whom it is quite enough to spoil the temper of the best-natured woman in the world to have in the house with them.

   • 1881, P. Chr. Asbjörnsen [i.e., Peter Christen Asbjørnsen], “Mackerel Trolling”, in H. L. Brækstad, transl., Round the Yule Log. Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, →OCLC, page 181:

     Rasmus was a tall, powerful man, with a weather-beaten, furrowed face of a good-natured expression.

   • 1964 August, “Dr. B lights a pre-election fuse”, in Modern Railways, page 76:

     However, the immediate howls of outrage from the industry were in many cases less than good-natured.

   • 2017, Charles Duff, “What About the Linen?”, in Charley’s Woods: Sex, Sorrow and a Spiritual Quest in Snowdonia, London: Zuleika, →ISBN, page 145:

     I had a rival for Marcel’s affections, a boy who later became the king of recorded classical music and confrère of Herbert von Karajan. I was vile to this poor chap who, like a cheerful Papageno, was much better-natured than I was.

Related terms

• good nature

Translations

having or showing an amicable, kindly disposition

• Belarusian: дабраду́шны (dabradúšny), лаго́дны (lahódny)
• Bulgarian: доброду́шен (bg) (dobrodúšen)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 善良 (zh) (shànliáng)

• Czech: dobrácký
• Dutch: zachtaardig (nl), goedaardig (nl)
• Finnish: hyväntahtoinen (fi)
• German: gutmütig (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: εὔκολος (eúkolos)

• Korean: 착하다 (ko) (chakhada)
• Macedonian: добродушен (dobrodušen)
• Polish: dobroduszny (pl), arcydobry
• Russian: доброду́шный (ru) (dobrodúšnyj), до́брый (ru) (dóbryj)
• Serbo-Croatian: dobroćudan
• Slovene: dobrodušen
• Spanish: bonachón (es)
• Ukrainian: доброду́шний (dobrodúšnyj), ла́гідний (láhidnyj)

References

• “good-natured”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.