Hypertext Webster Gateway: "handsome"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Handsome \Hand"some\ (?; 277), a. [Compar. {Handsomer}; superl.
{Handsomest}.] [Hand + -some. It at first meant, dexterous;
cf. D. handzaam dexterous, ready, limber, manageable, and E.
handy.]
1. Dexterous; skillful; handy; ready; convenient; -- applied
to things as persons. [Obs.]
That they [engines of war] be both easy to be
carried and handsome to be moved and turned about.
--Robynson
(Utopia).
For a thief it is so handsome as it may seem it was
first invented for him. --Spenser.
2. Agreeable to the eye or to correct taste; having a
pleasing appearance or expression; attractive; having
symmetry and dignity; comely; -- expressing more than
pretty, and less than beautiful; as, a handsome man or
woman; a handsome garment, house, tree, horse.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
handsome
adj 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 [syn: {fine-looking}, {good-looking},
{better-looking}, {well-favored}, {well-favoured}]
2: given or giving freely; "was a big tipper"; "the bounteous
goodness of God"; "bountiful compliments"; "a freehanded
host"; "a handsome allowance"; "Saturday's child is loving
and giving"; "a liberal backer of the arts"; "a munificent
gift"; "her fond and openhanded grandfather" [syn: {big},
{bighearted}, {bounteous}, {bountiful}, {freehanded}, {giving},
{liberal}, {openhanded}]
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