great-hearted, a.
(Stress variable.)
[f. great a.: see hearted.]
† a. High-spirited; proud. Obs. b. Having a noble or generous heart or spirit; magnanimous; great-souled.
| 1388 [see great-willy]. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xii. xxi. (1495) 427 The faucon is soo grete hartyd that yf he fayllyth of his pray in the fyrste flyghte and rees, in the seconde he takyth wreche on hymself. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 210/2 Grete hertyd, and bolde, magnanimus. Grete hertyd, not redy to buxumnesse pertinax, inflexibilis. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour (1868) 26 Alle women that ben gret herted and misansueringe her husbondes. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. §66 The earl..was as great-hearted as he, and thought the very suspecting him to be an injury unpardonable. 1842 Browning Cavalier Tunes, Marching Along, Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song. 1848 Buckley Iliad 102 Great-hearted, brazen-voiced Stentor. 1880 G. Meredith Tragic Com. (1881) 172 Alvan was great-hearted: he could love in his giant's fashion. |
Hence greatˈheartedness, † (a) High-spiritedness (obs.). (b) Nobility or generosity of heart, magnanimity.
| 1813 Examiner 31 May 349/2 The courage and great-heartedness of the people of England. 1844 Lowell Lett. (1894) I. 79 If they give us nothing else, they give us at least a feeling of great-heartedness and exaltation. 1880 G. Meredith Tragic Com. (1881) 283 Wives he should have by fifties and hundreds if he wanted them, she thought in her great-heartedness. 1895 J. Smith Message of the Exodus xviii. 264 In His great-heartedness our Father is tolerant of mere human frailty. |