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(), a.[L. ingenuus inborn, innate, freeborn, noble, frank; pref. in- in + the root of gignere to beget. See Genius, and cf. Ingenious.] 1. Of honorable extraction; freeborn; noble; as, ingenuous blood of birth. 2. Noble; generous; magnanimous; honorable; upright; high-minded; as, an ingenuous ardor or zeal. If an ingenuous detestation of falsehood be but carefully and early instilled, that is the true and genuine method to obviate dishonesty. Locke. 3. Free from reserve, disguise, equivocation, or dissimulation; open; frank; as, an ingenuous man; an ingenuous declaration, confession, etc. Sensible in myself . . . what a burden it is for me, who would be ingenuous, to be loaded with courtesies which he hath not the least hope to requite or deserve. Fuller. 4. Ingenious. [Obs.] Shak. (Formerly) printers did not discriminate between . . . ingenuous and ingenious, and these words were used or rather printed interchangeably almost to the beginning of the eighteenth century. スポンサード リンク
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