handsome
hand·some
adjective
1.
pleasing in appearance especially by reason of conformity to ideals of form and proportion
- “a fine-looking woman”
- “a good-looking man”
- “better-looking than her sister”
- “very pretty but not so extraordinarily handsome” Thackeray
- “our southern women are well-favored” Lillian Hellman
2.
- “was a big tipper”
- “the bounteous goodness of God”
- “bountiful compliments”
- “a freehanded host”
- “a handsome allowance”
- “Saturday”
- “;”
- “;”
- “;”
Origin
From Middle English handsum, hondsom, equivalent to hand + -some. Compare Dutch handzaam, German Low German handsaam. The original sense was “easy to handle or use”, hence “suitable” and “apt, clever” (mid-16th century), giving rise to the current appreciatory senses (late 16th century).
Phrases
- do the handsome thing
- handsome devil
- handsome is as handsome does
Related words
Word family
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.