| English Dictionary |
PLEASING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does pleasing mean?
• PLEASING (noun)
The noun PLEASING has 1 sense:
1. the act of one who pleases
Familiarity information: PLEASING used as a noun is very rare.
• PLEASING (adjective)
The adjective PLEASING has 2 senses:
1. giving pleasure and satisfaction
2. pleasant or agreeable to the senses
Familiarity information: PLEASING used as an adjective is rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of one who pleases
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("pleasing" is a kind of...):
gratification (the act or an instance of satisfying)
Derivation:
please (give pleasure to or be pleasing to)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Giving pleasure and satisfaction
Context example:
a pleasing piece of news
Similar:
admirable (inspiring admiration or approval)
charming (pleasing or delighting)
delicious; delightful (greatly pleasing or entertaining)
easy (affording pleasure)
fab; fabulous (extremely pleasing)
good (capable of pleasing)
gratifying; sweet (pleasing to the mind or feeling)
ingratiating (capable of winning favor)
sweet (pleasing to the senses)
Also:
attractive (pleasing to the eye or mind especially through beauty or charm)
beautiful (delighting the senses or exciting intellectual or emotional admiration)
humorous; humourous (full of or characterized by humor)
pleasant (affording pleasure; being in harmony with your taste or likings)
Antonym:
displeasing (causing displeasure or lacking pleasing qualities)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Pleasant or agreeable to the senses
Context example:
a pleasing aroma
Similar:
pleasant (affording pleasure; being in harmony with your taste or likings)
Derivation:
pleasingness (the quality of giving pleasure to the senses)
Context examples
Her brother was not handsome: no, when they first saw him he was absolutely plain, black and plain; but still he was the gentleman, with a pleasing address.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
This proposal of his, this plan of marrying and continuing at Hartfield—the more she contemplated it, the more pleasing it became.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
But I can assure you, she added, that Lizzy does not lose much by not suiting his fancy; for he is a most disagreeable, horrid man, not at all worth pleasing.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Pleasing to the eye or mind especially through beauty or charm.
(Attractive, NCI Thesaurus)
You may be shocked to see a pleasing resolution on December 15.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
Valuable or useful or agreeable or pleasing.
(Good, NCI Thesaurus)
I could now see that he was a white man like myself and that his features were even pleasing.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Should any gentleman think otherwise, I should deem it great honor to run a small course with him, or debate the matter in whatever way might be most pleasing to him.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It opens a pleasing field for intelligent speculation.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I really had not the energy to follow it up save in a very incomplete fashion, but it gave me a basis for some pleasing speculation.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"Most of us do not look as handsome to others as we do to ourselves." (Native American proverb, Assiniboine)
"Protect your brother's privacy for what he knows of you." (Arabic proverb)
"Lovers and lords want only to be alone together." (Corsican proverb)