#906. Benevolence. -- N. benevolence, Christian charity; God's love, God's grace; good will; philanthropy &c. 910; unselfishness &c. 942.
good nature, good feeling, good wishes; kindness, kindliness &c. adj.; loving-kindness, benignity, brotherly love, charity, humanity, fellow- feeling, sympathy: goodness of heart, warmth of heart; bonhomie; kind- heartedness; amiability, milk of human kindness, tenderness; love &c. 897; friendship &c. 888.
toleration, consideration, generosity; mercy &c. (pity) 914.
charitableness &c. adj.; bounty, almsgiving; good works, beneficence, "the luxury of doing good " [Goldsmith].
acts of kindness, a good turn; good offices, kind offices good treatment, kind treatment.
good Samaritan, sympathizer, bon enfant[Fr]; altruist.
V. be benevolent &c. adj.; have one's heart in the right place, bear good will; wish well, wish Godspeed; view with an eye of favor, regard with an eye of favor; take in good part; take an interest in, feel an interest in; be interested in, feel interested in; sympathize with, empathize with, feel for; fraternize &c. (be friendly) 888.
enter into the feelings of others, do as you would be done by, meet halfway.
treat well; give comfort, smooth the bed of death; do good, do a good turn; benefit &c. (goodness) 648; render a service, be of use; aid &c. 707.
Adj. benevolent; kind, kindly; well-meaning; amiable; obliging, accommodating, indulgent, gracious, complacent, good-humored.
warm-hearted, kind-hearted, tender-hearted, large-hearted, broad- hearted; merciful &c. 914; charitable, beneficent, humane, benignant; bounteous, bountiful.
good-natured, well-natured; spleenless[obs]; sympathizing, sympathetic; complaisant &c. (courteous) 894; well-meant, well-intentioned.
fatherly, motherly, brotherly, sisterly; paternal, maternal, fraternal; sororal[obs]; friendly &c. 888.
Adv. with a good intention, with the best intentions.
Int. Godspeed! much good may it do!
Phr. " act a charity sometimes " [Lamb]; " a tender heart, a will inflexible " [Longfellow]; de mortuis nil nisi bonum [Lat: say only good things about the dead, don't speak ill of the dead]; " kind words are more than coronets " [Tennyson]; quando amigo pide no hay manana[Lat]; " the social smile, the sympathetic tear " [Gray].