HANDSOME

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does handsome mean? 

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

1. pleasing in appearance especially by reason of conformity to ideals of form and proportion

2. given or giving freely

  Familiarity information: HANDSOME used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HANDSOME (adjective)

Comparative: handsomer   
Superlative: handsomest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Pleasing in appearance especially by reason of conformity to ideals of form and proportion

Synonyms:

better-looking; fine-looking; good-looking; handsome; well-favored; well-favoured

Context example:

our southern women are well-favored

Similar:

beautiful (delighting the senses or exciting intellectual or emotional admiration)

Derivation:

handsomeness (the quality of having regular well-defined features (especially of a man))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Given or giving freely

Synonyms:

big; bighearted; bounteous; bountiful; freehanded; giving; handsome; liberal; openhanded

Context example:

her fond and openhanded grandfather

Similar:

generous (willing to give and share unstintingly)

 Context examples 

I do not think him at all handsome.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

This suggests that you might be paid a handsome sum for the work you are about to turn in.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

At last, however, she found a boy who was handsome and manly and wise beyond his years.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

If Mr. Mell looked homely, in my eyes, before the handsome boy, it would be quite impossible to say how homely Mr. Creakle looked.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He wasn’t a tall, handsome, dark young man?

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The others are very much admired too, but I believe Isabella is the handsomest.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

She'll see those handsome eyes that she talks about, and then it will be all up with her.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

All the people grieved for the handsome youth; then they went away, leaving him alone by the sea.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Mr. Dixon, you say, is not, strictly speaking, handsome?

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Then, after a long pause, he added: "The king of the ape-men was really a creature of great distinction—a most remarkably handsome and intelligent personality. Did it not strike you?"

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)