gentilesse
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of gentilesse
1300–50; Middle English < Middle French gentillesse, equivalent to gentil ( see genteel, gentle) + -esse noun suffix
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.
It’s for grammatical consistency, not beauty or gentilesse, for example, that correct English has us say “It was he” instead of “It was him.”
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 3, 2014
You look like one of those Frenchified Norman gentilesse, with your smooth locks and gilded baldrick, yet your words are Norse.
From The Little Duke by Yonge, Charlotte Mary
Withoute pite gentilesse, Withoute mercy wommanhede, That wol so quyte a man his mede, Which evere hath be to love trewe.
From Confessio Amantis, or, Tales of the Seven Deadly Sins by Macaulay, G. C. (George Campbell)
Dear heart, thought I, but where were their eyes, both twain, that they saw not the lovesomeness and gentilesse of that my gallant Protection?
From Joyce Morrell's Harvest The Annals of Selwick Hall by Holt, Emily Sarah
For thee have I my nece, of vyces clene, So fully maad thy gentilesse triste, That al shal been right as thy-selve liste.
From Troilus and Criseyde by Chaucer, Geoffrey
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.
