Mercy Meaning
/ˈmɜːsi/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounRelenting; forbearance to cause or allow harm to another.
nounForgiveness or compassion, especially toward those less fortunate.
Sentence Examples
The yacht was at the mercy of the dreadful storm.
Portia tempered justice with mercy.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The criminal begged for ____, but the judge gave him the maximum punishment.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The captured prisoners begged for ____, hoping that their captors would treat them with some level of compassion.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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"
— 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:
"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.'"
— 1866, Sarah Hammond Palfrey, Herman: Or, Young Knighthood, page 189:
"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!""
— 1867, Henry Mills Alden, Lee Foster Hartman, Frederick Lewis Allen, Harper's Magazine - Volume 34, page 402:
"There is not a less mercied pair of rogues within the walls of Ireland these days than you both."
— 1888, Parnellism and Crime: Further evidence as to murders and outrages:
"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."
— 1965, Equinox: An Anthology of New Writing from the Philippines:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The criminal begged for ____, but the judge gave him the maximum punishment.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The captured prisoners begged for ____, hoping that their captors would treat them with some level of compassion.