bountiful, a.
(ˈbaʊntɪfʊl)
[f. bounty + -ful.]
1. Of persons: Full of, or abounding in, bounty; graciously liberal, generous. Lady Bountiful, a character in Farquhar's Beaux' Stratagem (1707): since used for the great (or beneficent) lady in a neighbourhood.
| 1508 Fisher Wks. (1876) 172 Thy mercy is..so grete and bountefull to wretched synners. a 1577 Sir T. Smith Commw. Eng. (1609) 27 Higher stomacke, and bountifuller liberality than others. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. i. 168 A worthy gentleman..as bountifull as Mynes of India. 1771 Junius Lett. lvi. 294 How much easier it is to be generous than just, and..men are sometimes bountiful who are not honest. 1815 Scott Paul's Lett. (1839) 11 Those facts..affect you as a Lady Bountiful. 1830 Macaulay Southey's Colloq., Ess. (1854) I. 109/1 He [the magistrate] ought to be..a Lady Bountiful in every parish, a Paul Pry in every house. 1857 Buckle Civilis. iii. 142 The richest countries were those in which nature was most bountiful. |
2. Of things: Characterized by bounty, abundantly yielding; also, ample, abundant, plenteous.
| 1538 Starkey England 77 Our mother the ground ys so plentuous and bountyful. 1601 Shakes. All's Well ii. ii. 15 That's a bountifull answere that fits all questions. 1860 Tyndall i. §27. 207 A bountiful fire of pine logs was made. 1885 Manch. Exam. 26 Jan. 5/3 Soil so bountiful that one day's labour is sufficient to procure three days' living. |