bonny
adjective
pleasing to the eye; handsome; pretty.
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bonny
American
[bon-ee]
/ ˈbɒn i /
Or
bonnie
adjective
bonnier,
bonniest
-
Chiefly Scot. pleasing to the eye; handsome; pretty.
-
British Dialect.
-
(of people) healthy, sweet, and lively.
-
(of places) placid; tranquil.
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pleasing; agreeable; good.
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adverb
noun
bonny
1
British
/ ˈbɒnɪ /
adjective
-
dialect beautiful or handsome
a bonny lass
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merry or lively
a bonny family
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good or fine
a bonny house
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(esp of babies) plump
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dialect considerable; to be reckoned with
cost a bonny penny
adverb
Bonny
2
British
/ ˈbɒnɪ /
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of bonny
1425–75; late Middle English ( Scots ) bonie, perhaps < Old French bon good + -ie -y 1, perhaps by analogy with jolie jolly
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A bonny place, in the local argot, it’s also the birthplace of Donald Trump’s mother, Mary Anne MacLeod.
From New York Times ● Oct. 16, 2018
“It’s bonny, happy, chirpy, fun,” director Richmond says of the score, noting that it’s hardly what audiences will expect the witches to sing.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 5, 2018
Basically, Claire pulls the 18th century equivalent of a #yesallwomen campaign, and celebrates her victory by standing on a buttress and smiling vacantly at some wee bonny children.
From Time ● Aug. 16, 2014
"You're a bonny fellow to frighten children so," one of the regulars admonished him as he finished the tale.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2014
“Not at all—it bears the most gracious message in the world: for the rest, you are not my conscience-keeper, so don’t make yourself uneasy. Here, come in, bonny wanderer!”
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
In light of the administration’s security strategy, the sale shows “its actions are aligning with its words,” said Bonny Lin, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 19, 2025
It was no surprise when Inter levelled after 54 minutes, with Bonny teeing up Zielinski to sweep home.
From Barron's ● Nov. 26, 2025
Lee Calvert stands in the living room of her daughter’s home in Bonny Doon, Calif., in May 27.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2025
Captain Enrico Delprato, strikers Dennis Man, Valentin Mihaila, Adrian Benedyczak and brilliant playmaker Adrian Bernabe all arrived in 2021; all have extended the contracts they signed on arrival, as have Simon Sohm and Angel Bonny.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2024
A band began playing “That Bonny Blue Flag,” in Lee’s honor.
From "The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War" by Michael Shaara
While some of his ban mots may have grown bonnier in telling, and others may be wholly apocryphal, who can say for sure?
From Time Magazine Archive
“Not a bit, and you never will. You’ve grown bigger and bonnier, but you are the same scapegrace as ever.”
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
Mines is no to be mentioned wi’ it, and there’s few weemen has mair hair than what I have, or yet a bonnier colour.
From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. XIX (of 25) The Ebb-Tide; Weir of Hermiston by Stevenson, Robert Louis
Well, checked cloth is bonnier than black broadcloth to some people.
From An Orkney Maid by Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston
And a poor man ye'd be if ye didn't, for a bonnier lass never came out of Canada, and that's saying somethin'.
From The Homesteaders A Novel of the Canadian West by Stead, Robert J. C.
The prams of Britain are filled with the bonniest babies in living memory.
From Time Magazine Archive
So he suggested a cat instead, “the bonniest little cat ye ever did see.”
From "The Old Willis Place" by Mary Downing Hahn
"Ay, but there is death, in the cottage as well as in the bonniest ha'," muttered Bertha, ominously.
From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 13 by Various
“The first thing I did was to fall aff the flower-pot; but syne I came to, and says I, wi’ a polite smirk, ‘I’m thinking your leddyship,’ says I, ‘as you’re the bonniest yourself.’
From The Little Minister by Barrie, J. M. (James Matthew)
In ‘Young Peggy Blooms’ he describes her: Young Peggy blooms our bonniest lass, Her blush is like the morning, The rosy dawn, the springing grass With early gems adorning.
From The Real Robert Burns by Hughes, J. L.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
