boon

noun

1. A good thing; a thing to be thankful for or to appreciate duly.

   “Near-synonyms: gift; blessing, benefit; see also Thesaurus:gift”

   “Finding the dry cave was a boon to the weary travellers.”

   “Anaesthetics are a great boon to modern surgery.”

   “Diggle Station lies high up in the Pennine Chain, subject to extreme low temperatures. With this and heavy snowfall in the winter months, Diggle bids fair to compete with the Scottish lines under similar weather conditions, and the provision of unfrozen water in the higher ambient temperature of the tunnel must be a boon to harassed engine drivers whose thirsty steeds run short of water up the gruelling 1 in 125 seven-mile climb from Stalybridge.”

   “Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus. […] A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that. Developed as a tool to electronically combine the sharpest bits of multiple digital images, focus stacking is a boon to biologists seeking full focus on a micron scale.”

2. That which is asked or granted as a benefit or favor; a gift or benefaction.

   “I gave you life. Can you not return the boon by giving me death, my lord?”

   “Every good gift and every perfect boon is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning.”

   “[T]he hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man[.]”

3. (obsolete)A prayer; petition.

   “The wofull husbandman doth lowd complaine, / To ſee his whole yeares labor loſt ſo ſoone, / For which to God he made ſo many an idle boone.”

4. (British, dialectal)An unpaid service due by a tenant to his lord.
5. (Hinduism)A blessing, typically a supernatural power, granted to an ascetic by a god or goddess.

   “A telling story is that of Vikra, who, after practicing severe tapas for many years, called on Śiva, asking him to grant the boon that whosoever's head he would touch, that person would die instantly.”

6. (uncountable)The woody portion of flax, separated from the fiber as refuse matter by retting, braking, and scutching.

adj

1. Gay; merry; jovial; convivial.

   “Greedily ſhe ingorg’d without restraint, / And knew not eating Death: Satiate at length, / And hight’nd as with Wine, jocond and boon, / Thus to herſelf ſhe pleaſingly began.”

   “I knovv the Infirmity of our Family; vve are apt to play the Boon-Companion, and throvv avvay our Money in our Cups: […]”

   “I’m a lonely old man; I lead a life that I don’t like, among boon companions, who make me melancholy.”

   “―No, Mr Bloom repeated again, I wouldn’t personally repose much trust in that boon companion of yours who contributes the humorous element, Dr Mulligan, as a guide, philosopher, and friend, if I were in your shoes.”

   “[T]he boon twins Art and Con aged thirty-seven years […]”

2. (archaic)Kind; bountiful; benign.

   “With mazie error under pendant ſhades / Ran Nectar, viſiting each plant, and fed /Flours worthy of Paradiſe which not nice Art / In Beds and curious Knots, but Nature boon / Powrd forth profuſe on Hill and Dale and Plaine, / […]”

3. (obsolete)Good; prosperous.

   “boon voyage”

name

1. A surname
2. A township in Warrick County, Indiana, United States, named after settler Ratcliff Boon.
3. A township and unincorporated community therein, in Wexford County, Michigan, United States.