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ing good in any of its various senses; excellence; virtue; kindness; benevolence; as, the goodness of timber, of a soil, of food; goodness of character, of disposition, of conduct, etc.

o put to shame; to disconcert; to discomfit. Abashed, the devil stood, And felt how awful goodness is. Milton. He was a man whom no check could abash. Macaulay.

sufficient; plentiful; in copious supply; -- followed by in, rarely by with. "Abundant in goodness and truth." Exod. xxxiv. 6. Abundant number (Math.), a number, the sum of whose aliquot parts exceeds the number itself. Thus, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, the aliquot parts of 12, make the number 16. This is opposed to a deficient num…

Habitual; customary; wonted. "Accustomable goodness." Latimer.

Orig., an officer appointed to look to the goodness of ale and beer; also, one of the officers chosen by the liverymen of London to inspect the measures used in public houses. But the office is a sinecure. [Also called aletaster.] [Eng.]

An appellation given to a person supposed to be of angelic goodness or loveliness; a darling. When pain and anguish wring the brow. Sir W. Scott.

of no effect; to destroy the force, etc., of; as, to annihilate an argument, law, rights, goodness.

A turning away. [Obs.] Adhesion to vice and aversion from goodness. Bp. Atterbury.

A woman excelling both in beauty and goodness; a fair maid. [Obs.] Spenser.

The practice of doing good; active goodness, kindness, or charity; bounty springing from purity and goodness. And whose beneficence no charge exhausts. Cowper.

The quality of being benign; goodness; kindness; graciousness. "Benignity of aspect." Sir W. Scott.

Fig.: Dismal, gloomy, or forbidding, like darkness; destitute of moral light or goodness; atrociously wicked; cruel; mournful; calamitous; horrible. "This day's black fate." "Black villainy." "Arise, black vengeance." "Black day." "Black despair." Shak.

Goodness; generosity. [Obs.] Spenser.

Goodness, kindness; virtue; worth. [Obs.] Nature set in her at once beauty with bounty. Gower.

Sternness; severity. [Obs.] A Sara for goodness, a great Bellona for budgeness. Stanyhurst.

To make whining pretensions to goodness; to talk with an affectation of religion, philanthropy, etc.; to practice hypocrisy; as, a canting fanatic. The rankest rogue that ever canted. Beau. & Fl.

One who makes hypocritical pretensions to goodness; one who uses canting language. The day when he was a canter and a rebel. Macaulay.

To praise or celebrate in song. The Shepherds at their festivals Carol her goodness. Milton.

scourse . . . of the nature of truth . . . affirm a perfect coincidence between truth and goodness. South.

Uninterrupted; unbroken; continual; continued. An untirable and continuate goodness. Shak.