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he quality of being sweet or pleasing to the mind; agreeableness; softness; pleasantness; gentleness; urbanity; as, suavity of manners; suavity of language, conversation, or address. Glanvill.

Gentle; soft; calm; as, submiss voices. [R.]

; to woo. For yet there was no man that haddle him sued. Chaucer. I was beloved of many a gentle knight, And sued and sought with all the service due. Spenser. Sue me, and woo me, and flatter me. Tennyson.

Pertaining to, or resembling, a swain; rustic; ignorant. "An ungentle and swainish beast." Milton. -- Swain"ish*ness, n. Emerson.

Plaesing to the mind; mild; gentle; calm; amiable; winning; presuasive; as, sweet manners. Canst thou bind the sweet influence of Pleiades Job xxxviii. 31. Mildness and sweet reasonableness is the one established rule of Christian working. M. Arnold.

A similar garment worn formerly by gentlemen.

To reduce from a wild to a domestic state; to make gentle and familiar; to reclaim; to domesticate; as, to tame a wild beast. They had not been tamed into submission, but baited into savegeness and stubbornness. Macaulay.

To drive in or down by frequent gentle strokes; as, to tamp earth so as to make a smooth place.

To strike with a slight or gentle blow; to touch gently; to rap lightly; to pat; as, to tap one with the hand or a cane.

hild's toy, somewhat resembling a top, and twirled by the fingers. The staggerings of the gentleman . . . were like those of a teetotum nearly spent. Dickens.

Moderation of passion; patience; calmness; sedateness. [R.] "A gentleman of all temperance." Shak. He calmed his wrath with goodly temperance. Spenser.

To move in a certain direction; -- usually with to or towards. Two gentlemen tending towards that sight. Sir H. Wotton. Thus will this latter, as the former world, Still tend from bad to worse. Milton. The clouds above me to the white Alps tend. Byron.

Unwilling to cause pain; gentle; mild. You, that are thus so tender o'er his follies, Will never do him good. Shak.

Gentle heat; moderate warmth; tepidness. Arbuthnot.

Fig.: To grow gentle or genial.

A theologian. Dryden. Ye gentle theologues of calmer kind. Young. He [Jerome] was the theologue -- and the word is designation enough. I. Taylor.

ar. Chaucer. Evil speeches destroy good thews. Wyclif (1 Cor. xv. 33). To be upbrought in gentle thews and martial might. Spenser.

The metropolis or its inhabitants; as, in winter the gentleman lives in town; in summer, in the country. Always hankering after the diversions of the town. Addison. Stunned with his giddy larum half the town. Pope.

To flow in a small, gentle stream; to run in drops. His salt tears trickled down as rain. Chaucer. Fast beside there trickled softly down A gentle stream. Spenser.

Being of real breeding or education; as, a true-bred gentleman.