Word Direct Answers

What does "kindly" mean?

Kindly: Humane; congenial; sympathetic; hence, disposed to do good to; benevolent; gracious; kind; helpful; as, kindly affections, words, acts, etc. The shade by which my life was crossed, . . . Has made me kindly with my kind. Tennyson.

Additional senses

  1. 2.Favorable; mild; gentle; auspicious; beneficent. In soft silence shed the kindly shower. Pope. Should e'er a kindlier time ensue. Wordsworth. Note: "Nothing ethical was connoted in kindly once: it was simply the adjective of kind. But it is God's ordinance that kind should be kindly, in our modern sense of the word as well; and thus the word has attained this meaning." Trench.
  2. 3.Naturally; fitly. [Obs.] Chaucer. Examine how kindly the Hebrew manners of speech mix and incorporate with the English language Addison.
  3. 4.In a kind manner; congenially; with good will; with a disposition to make others happy, or to oblige. Be kindly affectioned one to another, with brotherly love. Rom. xii. 10.

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