Emily Dickinson Lexicon

GENTLE, n.

1. A gentleman; [Obs.] Shak.
2. A kind of worm. Walton.

GENTLE, v.t.

To make genteel; to raise from the vulgar. [Obs.] Shak.

GEN'TLE-FOLK, n. [gentle and folk.]

Persons of good breeding and family. It is now used only in the plural, gentlefolks, and this use is vulgar.

GENTLE-MAN, n. [gentle, that is, genteel, and man. So in Fr. gentilhomme, It. gentiluomo, Sp. gentilhombre; See Genteel.]

1. in its most extensive sense, in Great Britain, every man above the rank of yeomen, comprehending noblemen; In a more limited sense, a man who without a title bears a coat dams, or whose ancestors have been freemen; In this sense, gentlemen hold a middle rank between the nobility and yeomanry.
2. In the United States, where titles and distinctions of milk do not exist, the term is applied to men of education and of good breeding, of every occupation; Indeed this is also the popular practice in Great Britain. Hence,
3. A man of good breeding, politeness, and civil manners, as distinguished from the vulgar and clownish. A plowman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees. Franklin.
4. A term of complaisance. In the plural, the appellation by which men are addressed in popular assemblies, what-ever may he their condition or character.
5. In Great Britain, the servant of n man of rank, who attends his person. Camden.

GENTLE-MAN-LIKE, or GENTLE-MAN-LY, a.

1. Pertaining to or becoming a gentleman, or a man of good family and breeding; polite; complaisant; as, gentlemanly manners.
2. Like a man of birth and good breeding; as, a gentlemanly officer.

GENTLE-MAN-LI-NESS, n.

Behavior of a well bred man. Sherwood.

GENTLE-NESS, n. [See Gentle.]

1. Dignity of birth. [Little used.]
2. Genteel behavior. [Obs.]
3. Softness of manners; mildness of temper; sweetness of disposition; meekness. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. Gal; v.
4. {Redness; benevolence. [Obs.] Shak.
5. Tenderness; mild treatment.

GEN'TLE-SHIP, n.

The deportment of a gentleman. [Obs.] Ascham.

GENTLE-WO-MAN, n. [gentle and woman.]

1. A woman of good family or of good-breeding; a woman above the vulgar.
2. A woman who waits about the person of one of high rank.
3. A term of civility to a female, sometimes ironical. Dryden.

GENTLE-WO-MAN-LIKE, a.

Becoming a gentlewoman.

GENTLY, adv.

1. Softly; meekly; mildly; with tenderness. My mistress gently chides the fault I made. Dryden.
2. Without violence, roughness or asperity. Shak.

GEN-TOO', n. [Port. gentio, a gentile.]

A native of India or Hindoostan; one who follows the religion of the Bramins. [Not used in India.] Encyc.

GENTRY, n.

1. Birth; condition; rank by birth. Shak.
2. People of education and good breeding. In Great Britain, the classes of people between the nobility and the vulgar.
3. A term of civility; civility; complaisance. [Obs.]

GE-NU-FLECTION, n. [L. genu, the knee, and flectio, a bending.]

The act of bending the knee, particularly in worship. Stilling fleet.

GEN'U-INE, a. [L. genuinus, from genus, or its root. See Gender]

Native; belonging to the original stock; hence, real; natural; true; pure; not spurious, false, or adulterated. The Gaels are supposed to be genuine descendants of the Celts. Vices and crimes are the genuine effects of depravity, as virtue and pioty are the genuine fruits of holiness. It is supposed we have the genuine text of Homer.

GEN'U-INE-LY, adv.

Without adulteration or foreign admixture; naturally. Boyle.

GENU-INE-NESS, n.

The state of being native, or of the true original; hence, freedom from adulteration or foreign admixture; freedom from any thing false or counterfeit; purity; reality; as, the genuineness of Livy's history the genuineness of faith or repentance. [Bp. Watson, in his Apology for the Bible, considers authenticity and genuineness to be quite distinct, the former referring to the correctness of the facts detailed, and the latter to the authorship of the book containing them; while on the other hand they are used by Bishop Marsh as synonymous.—E. H. B.]

GE'NUS, n. plur.

1. Genuses or Genera. [t. genus, Gr. lenos, Ir. gein, offspring, race or family, Sans. jana; hence, kind, sort. See Gender.]
2. In logic, that which has several species under it; a class of a greater extent than species; a universal which is predicable of several things of different species. Cyc.
3. In natural history, an assemblage of species possessing certain characters in common, hy which they are distinguished from all others; It is subordinate to clam and order, and in some arrangements, to tribe and family. A single species, possessing certain peculiar characters, which belong to no other species, may also constitute a genus; as the camelopard, and the flamingo.
4. In botany, a genus consists of such a group or assemblage of species as agree both structurally and physiologically, as respects the organs of fructification, reproduction or perpetuation, and at the same time have a general resemblance in habit.

GE-O-CEN'TRIC, a. [Gr; ye, earth, and {foreign}, center.]

Having the earth for its center, or the same center with the earth. The word is applied to a planet or its orbit. Harris. Encyc.

GEODE, n. [Gr. {foreign}, earthy, from gada or {foreign}, earth. Plin. encodes, lib. 36, I9.]

In mineralogy, a round or roundish lump of agate or other mineral, or a mere incrustation; Its interior is sometimes empty, and in this case the sides of its cavity are lined with crystals, as in agate balls; Sometimes it contains a solid movable nucleus; und sometimes it is filled with an earthy matter different from the envelop. Cleaveland.

GE-O-DE'SIC, or GE-O-DE'SIC-AL, a.

Geodetic. Sedgwick.

GE-OD'E-SY, n. [Gr. {foreign}; {foreign}, the earth, and {foreign}, to divide.]

That part of geometry which respects the doctrine of measuring surfaces, and finding the contents of all plain figures. Harris.

GE-O-DET'IC, or GE-O-DET'IC-AL, a.

Pertaining to the art of measuring surfaces. GE;O-DIF'ER-OUS, a. [geode, and L. firo.] Producing geodes.

GE'OG-NOST, n. [See Geognosy.]

One versed in geognosy; a geologist.

GE-OG-NOSTIC, a.

Pertaining to a knowledge of the structure of the earth; geological.