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• good Samaritan
  good Samaritan

  noun

  one who is compassionate and helpful to a person in distress.
• Good Samaritan
  Good Samaritan

  noun

  New Testament a figure in one of Christ's parables (Luke 10:30–37) who is an example of compassion towards those in distress

good Samaritan

American  

[good suh-mar-i-tn] / ˈgʊd səˈmær ɪ tn /

Or good samaritan

noun

1. one who is compassionate and helpful to a person in distress.

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Good Samaritan British  

noun

1. New Testament a figure in one of Christ's parables (Luke 10:30–37) who is an example of compassion towards those in distress

2. a kindly person who helps another in difficulty or distress

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Good Samaritan Cultural  

1. In one of the parables of Jesus, the only one of several passersby to come to the aid of a Jew (see also Jews) who had been robbed, beaten, and left to die on the roadside. The kindness of the Samaritan was particularly admirable because Jews and Samaritans (i.e., people of Samaria) were generally enemies. Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan to answer a man who had asked him, “Who is my neighbor?” He forced his questioner to admit that the Samaritan was the true neighbor of the man who had been robbed.

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good Samaritan Idioms  

1. A compassionate person who unselfishly helps others, as in In this neighborhood you can't count on a good Samaritan if you get in trouble. This expression alludes to Jesus's parable about a Samaritan who rescues and cares for a stranger who had been robbed and badly hurt and had been ignored by a priest and a Levite (Luke 10:30–35). The Samaritans were considered a heretical group by other Jews, so by using a Samaritan for the parable, Jesus chose a person whom his listeners would find least likely to be worthy of concern. [c. 1600]

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Discover More

Figuratively, “Good Samaritans” are persons who go out of their way to perform acts of kindness to others, especially strangers.

Etymology

Origin of good Samaritan

First recorded in 1840–50; from the parable of the good Samaritan in Luke 10:30–37.

Example Sentences

The 2½-month-old puppy, Peanut, was brought in as a stray on March 9 after being rescued by a good Samaritan in Arcadia, according to Jamie Holeman, chief marketing and communications officer at Pasadena Humane.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 7, 2026

But the moment that stood out most to me was when one good Samaritan asked plaintively while helping the distressed teenager, “We got to be able to call somebody.”

From Salon • Jan. 14, 2026

"I was pleading for someone to carry me and take me to hospital. A good Samaritan brought me here," he recalled in an interview with a freelance journalist working for the BBC.

From BBC • Jul. 24, 2025

They said the fire was stomped out by a good Samaritan.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 12, 2024

Like the power plant manager who quelled a riot in Huntington Beach, and the mysterious good Samaritan in Tustin who saved a whole bunch of people at a nursing home, then disappeared.

From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman