mercy
Valid in Scrabble
- Scrabble points
- 12
- Words With Friends
- 13
- Letters
- 5
See all 2 pronunciations Show less
Definition of mercy
11 senses · 4 parts of speech · etymology included
noun
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(uncountable)Relenting; forbearance to cause or allow harm to another.
“She took mercy on him and quit embarrassing him.”
See all 11 definitions Show less
noun
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(uncountable)Relenting; forbearance to cause or allow harm to another.
“She took mercy on him and quit embarrassing him.”
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(uncountable)Forgiveness or compassion, especially toward those less fortunate.
“Have mercy on the poor and assist them if you can.”
“He despaired of God's mercy in the same fact, where this presumed of it; he by a decollation of all hope annihilated his mercy, this by an immoderancy thereof destroyed his justice”
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(uncountable)A tendency toward forgiveness, pity, or compassion.
“Mercy is one of his many virtues.”
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(countable)Instances of forbearance or forgiveness.
“1982, Bible (NKJV), Psalm 40:11a Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O Lord”
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(countable)A blessing; something to be thankful for.
“It was a mercy that we were not inside when the roof collapsed”
- (uncountable)A children's game in which two players stand opposite with hands grasped and twist each other's arms until one gives in.
verb
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To feel mercy
“I despised her; but I mercied her, too, and gave her sweet berries to eat, and led her to my lodge, and said to my best wife, ' Get up from my best skin, for the white squaw is a guest, and is weary.'”
“At another time, forgetting "his verse," he attempted part of the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, by repeating, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be mercied!"”
“There is not a less mercied pair of rogues within the walls of Ireland these days than you both.”
“In vogue, an age, we are interrupted typics of Universal errors; established adults of vaudeville Street shows — but not quite complete or made whole Neither pitied, nor mercied, nor eldered as one Full disguised and costumed.”
“No thank you, I resent being mercied by a thing that is just a^([sic]) imaginary product of suppressive humans who wanna have power over people!”
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To show mercy; to pardon or treat leniently because of mercy
“In the middle of the room is a young Infanta intended for Marguerite Theresa, born in 1651, daughter of Philip the fourth, whose portrait Velasquez took in 1658, to send to Leopold, who had just been elected Emperor of Germanyd and who mercied her in 1666.”
“Remember that kid that kept yelling that his father was mercied?” “Mercied?” - “The kid that kept saying his father was killed?”
“'Hah! Good Samaritan indeed! Then why hasn't she mercied me all these years I've been begging for her pepper-soup on credit?”
“Getting mercied sucks. And truth be told, mercying another team sucks.”
“This was Suttree's trolley token, the one that mercied him, the one that froze him to death.”
intj
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Expressing surprise or alarm.
“Mercy! Look at the state of you!”
“'Three o'clock if possible,' he replied brazenly. 'Six o'clock in any case.' Clifton gave a little shriek of young-ladylike dismay. 'Mercy! Today?' she exclaimed. 'Why, you dear creature, do you know—' 'I know what you can do when you like,' he got in.”
name
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A female given name from English.
“Mr Pecksniff was a moral man — a grave man, a man of noble sentiments and speech — and he had had her christened Mercy. Mercy! oh, what a charming name for such a pure–souled Being as the youngest Miss Pecksniff! Her sister’s name was Charity. There was a good thing! Mercy and Charity!”
- A surname from French.
Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.
Etymology
From Middle English mercy, merci, from Anglo-Norman merci (compare continental Old French merci, mercit), from Latin mercēs (“wages, fee, price”), from merx (“wares, merchandise”). Displaced native Old English mildheortnes (literally "mildheartedness"). Cognate with French merci, whence the doublet merci.
Words you can make from mercy
14 playable · top: CYME (11 pts)
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