| English Dictionary |
FOND
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does fond mean?
• FOND (adjective)
The adjective FOND has 4 senses:
1. having or displaying warmth or affection
2. extravagantly or foolishly loving and indulgent
3. (followed by 'of' or 'to') having a strong preference or liking for
4. absurd or silly because unlikely
Familiarity information: FOND used as an adjective is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
| Declension: comparative and superlative |
Superlative: fondest
Sense 1
Meaning:
Having or displaying warmth or affection
Synonyms:
affectionate; fond; lovesome; tender
Context example:
a tender glance
Similar:
loving (feeling or showing love and affection)
Derivation:
fondness (a positive feeling of liking)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Extravagantly or foolishly loving and indulgent
Synonyms:
Context example:
hopelessly spoiled by a fond mother
Similar:
loving (feeling or showing love and affection)
Derivation:
fondness (a quality proceeding from feelings of affection or love)
Sense 3
Meaning:
(followed by 'of' or 'to') having a strong preference or liking for
Synonyms:
fond; partial
Context example:
partial to horror movies
Similar:
inclined ((often followed by 'to') having a preference, disposition, or tendency)
Derivation:
fondness (a predisposition to like something)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Absurd or silly because unlikely
Context example:
fond fancies
Similar:
foolish (devoid of good sense or judgment)
Context examples
“Suppose I were to find him there again to-day!” said she to herself, in a fond indulgence of fancy.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
You are the gull, Jo, strong and wild, fond of the storm and the wind, flying far out to sea, and happy all alone.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Never had he been so fond of this body of his as now when his tenure of it was so precarious.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
But, like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
But you, who are so extremely fond of it—there can be no danger, surely?
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
I don't dislike you, Miss; I believe I am fonder of you than of all the others.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
And all this by such a man as General Tilney, so polite, so well bred, and heretofore so particularly fond of her!
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
His brothers of science don't seem too fond of him, either.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
She had been very fond of her husband: she had buried him.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
I remember Fanny used to say that she would marry sooner and better than you did; not but what she is exceedingly fond of YOU, but so it happened to strike her.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"You tell by the work, not by the clothes." (Albanian proverb)
"I see I forget. I hear I remember. I do I understand." (Chinese proverb)
"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." (Danish proverb)