MILDNESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does mildness mean? 

• MILDNESS (noun)
  The noun MILDNESS has 3 senses:

1. good weather with comfortable temperatures

2. acting in a manner that is gentle and mild and even-tempered

3. mercifulness as a consequence of being lenient or tolerant

  Familiarity information: MILDNESS used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MILDNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Good weather with comfortable temperatures

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

clemency; mildness

Hypernyms ("mildness" is a kind of...):

good weather (weather suitable for outdoor activities)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "mildness"):

balminess; softness (the quality of weather that is deliciously mild and soothing)

Derivation:

mild (mild and pleasant)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Acting in a manner that is gentle and mild and even-tempered

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

gentleness; mildness; softness

Context example:

even in the pulpit there are moments when mildness of manner is not enough

Hypernyms ("mildness" is a kind of...):

manner; personal manner (a way of acting or behaving)

Derivation:

mild (moderate in type or degree or effect or force; far from extreme)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Mercifulness as a consequence of being lenient or tolerant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

lenience; leniency; lenity; mildness

Hypernyms ("mildness" is a kind of...):

mercifulness; mercy (a disposition to be kind and forgiving)

 Context examples 

"Not quite. I want to say one thing, and then there shall be an end of it," returned Mr. Laurence with unusual mildness.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

And Marianne was in spirits; happy in the mildness of the weather, and still happier in her expectation of a frost.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

It needed all Jane's steady mildness to bear these attacks with tolerable tranquillity.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

He was shy, and disposed to abstraction; but the engaging mildness of her countenance, and gentleness of her manners, soon had their effect; and Anne was well repaid the first trouble of exertion.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

But if they were all mildness toward her, they were all fierceness toward one another.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The mildness of my nature had fled, and all within me was turned to gall and bitterness.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

He was not ill-inclined to obey this request, for, though his heart was greatly relieved by such unlooked-for mildness, it was not just at that moment in his power to say anything to the purpose.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Even before Miss Taylor had ceased to hold the nominal office of governess, the mildness of her temper had hardly allowed her to impose any restraint; and the shadow of authority being now long passed away, they had been living together as friend and friend very mutually attached, and Emma doing just what she liked; highly esteeming Miss Taylor's judgment, but directed chiefly by her own.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

He replied with his accustomary mildness to all her inquiries, but without satisfying her in any.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

The master is a person of an excellent disposition and is remarkable in the ship for his gentleness and the mildness of his discipline.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)