Emily Dickinson Lexicon

GOD'DESS-LIKE, a.

Resembling a goddess. Pope.

GOD'FA-THER, n. [Sax. god and fæder. The Saxons used also godsibb, good relation.]

The man who is sponsor for a child at baptism, who promises to answer for his future conduct and that he shall follow a life of piety, by this means laying himself under an indispensable obligation to instruct the child and watch over his conduct. This practice is of high antiquity in the Christian church, and was probably intended to prevent children from being brought up in idolatry, in case the parents died before the children had arrived to years of discretion. In the Romish church the number of godfathers and godmothers is reduced to two; in the Church of England, to three; but formerly the number was not limited. Encyc.

GOD'FA-THER, v.t.

To act as godfather; to take under one's fostering care. Burke.

GOD'HEAD, n. [god'hed; god and Sax. hade, state.]

1. Godship; deity; divinity; divine nature or essence; applied to the true God, and to heathen deities. Milton. Prior.
2. A deity in person; a god or goddess. Dryden.

GOD'LESS, a.

1. Having no reverence for God; impious; ungodly; irreligious; wicked. Hooker.
2. Atheistical; having no belief in the existence of God. Milton.

GOD'LESS-LY, adv.

Irreverently; atheistically.

GOD'LESS-NESS, n.

The state of being impious or irreligious. Bp. Hall.

GOD'LIKE, a.

1. Resembling God; divine.
2. Resembling a deity, or heathen divinity.
3. Of superior excellence; as, godlike virtue; a godlike prince.

GOD'LIKE-NESS, n.

The state of being godlike. [“godlike” is capitalized in the 1841 definition.]

GOD'LI-LY, adv.

Piously; righteously. H. Wharton.

GOD'LI-NESS, n. [from godly.]

1. Piety; belief in God and reverence for his character and laws.
2. A religious life; a careful observance of the laws of God and performance of religious duties, proceeding from love and reverence for the divine character and commands; Christian obedience. Godliness is profitable to all things. 1 Tim. iv.
3. Revelation; the system of Christianity. Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh. 1 Tim. iii.

GOD'LING, n.

A little deity; a diminutive god; as, a puny godling. Dryden.

GOD'LY, a. [god-like.]

1. Pious; reverencing God, and his character and laws.
2. Living in obedience to God's commands, from a principle of love to him and reverence of his character and precepts; religious; righteous; as, a godly person.
3. Pious; conformed to God's law; as, a godly life.

GOD'LY, adv.

Piously; righteously. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 2 Tim. iii.

GOD'LY-HEAD, n. [Sax. god, good, and head.]

Goodness. [Obs.] Spenser.

GOD'MOTH-ER, n. [god and mother.]

A woman who becomes sponsor for a child in baptism.

GO-DROON', n. [Fr. godron, a ruffle or puff.]

In architecture, a kind of inverted fluting or beading for ornament. Elmes.

GOD'SEND, n.

Something sent by God, or good fortune.

GOD'SHIP, n.

Deity; divinity; the rank or character of a god. O'er hills and dales their godships came. Prior.

GOD'SMITH, n.

A maker of idols. Dryden.

GOD'SON, n. [Sax. godsunu.]

One for whom another has been sponsor at the font.

GOD'S'-PEN-NY, n.

An earnest-penny. Beaum.

GOD'WARD, adv.

Toward God. [An ill-formed word.]

GOD'WIT, n. [Ice. god, and veide.]

A fowl of the grallic order and genus Scolopax. It has a bill four inches long; the feathers on the head, neck and back are of a light reddish brown, those on the belly white, and the tail is regularly barred with black and white. This fowl frequents fens and the banks of rivers, and its flesh is esteemed a great delicacy. Encyc.

GOD'YELD, or GOD'YIELD, adv. [Supposed to be contracted from good or god, and shield.]

A term of thanks. [Obs.] Shak.