CHILDLIKE

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does childlike mean? 

• CHILDLIKE (adjective)
  The adjective CHILDLIKE has 2 senses:

1. befitting a young child

2. exhibiting childlike simplicity and credulity

  Familiarity information: CHILDLIKE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CHILDLIKE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Befitting a young child

Synonyms:

childlike; childly

Context example:

childlike charm

Similar:

immature; young ((used of living things especially persons) in an early period of life or development or growth)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Exhibiting childlike simplicity and credulity

Synonyms:

childlike; dewy-eyed; round-eyed; simple; wide-eyed

Context example:

listened in round-eyed wonder

Similar:

naif; naive (marked by or showing unaffected simplicity and lack of guile or worldly experience)

 Context examples 

Old Ebbits looked at me in childlike wonder, while Zilla sneered openly at the absurdity of my question.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

He mused over the incident after she had gone, and once or twice broke out into laughter that was bitter as he saw his sister and her betrothed, all the members of his own class and the members of Ruth's class, directing their narrow little lives by narrow little formulas—herd-creatures, flocking together and patterning their lives by one another's opinions, failing of being individuals and of really living life because of the childlike formulas by which they were enslaved.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Me, she had dispensed from joining the group; saying, She regretted to be under the necessity of keeping me at a distance; but that until she heard from Bessie, and could discover by her own observation, that I was endeavouring in good earnest to acquire a more sociable and childlike disposition, a more attractive and sprightly manner—something lighter, franker, more natural, as it were—she really must exclude me from privileges intended only for contented, happy, little children.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But there was an unconscious emphasis on the last word, and a wistful look in the eyes that never lost their childlike candor, which chilled Jo's heart for a minute with a forboding fear, and decided her to make her little venture 'soon'.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He had never been in a bank in his life, much less been in one on business, and he had a naive and childlike desire to walk into one of the big banks down in Oakland and fling down his indorsed check for forty dollars.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)