kind

kind
    adj 1: having or showing a tender and considerate and helpful
           nature; used especially of persons and their behavior;
           "kind to sick patients"; "a kind master"; "kind words
           showing understanding and sympathy"; "thanked her for her
           kind letter" [ant: {unkind}]
    2: agreeable, conducive to comfort; "a dry climate kind to
       asthmatics"; "the genial sunshine";"hot summer pavements are
       anything but kind to the feet" [syn: {kind}, {genial}]
    3: tolerant and forgiving under provocation; "our neighbor was
       very kind about the window our son broke" [syn: {kind},
       {tolerant}]
    n 1: a category of things distinguished by some common
         characteristic or quality; "sculpture is a form of art";
         "what kinds of desserts are there?" [syn: {kind}, {sort},
         {form}, {variety}]
    

Kind \Kind\ (k[imac]nd), a. [Compar. {Kinder} (k[imac]nd"[~e]r);
   superl. {Kindest}.] [AS. cynde, gecynde, natural, innate,
   prop. an old p. p. from the root of E. kin. See {Kin}
   kindred.]
   1. Characteristic of the species; belonging to one's nature;
      natural; native. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
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            It becometh sweeter than it should be, and loseth
            the kind taste.                       --Holland.
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   2. Having feelings befitting our common nature; congenial;
      sympathetic; as, a kind man; a kind heart.
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            Yet was he kind, or if severe in aught,
            The love he bore to learning was his fault.
                                                  --Goldsmith.
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   3. Showing tenderness or goodness; disposed to do good and
      confer happiness; averse to hurting or paining;
      benevolent; benignant; gracious.
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            He is kind unto the unthankful and to evil. --Luke
                                                  vi 35.
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            O cruel Death, to those you take more kind
            Than to the wretched mortals left behind. --Waller.
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            A fellow feeling makes one wondrous kind. --Garrick.
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   4. Proceeding from, or characterized by, goodness,
      gentleness, or benevolence; as, a kind act. "Manners so
      kind, yet stately." --Tennyson.
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   5. Gentle; tractable; easily governed; as, a horse kind in
      harness.

   Syn: Benevolent; benign; beneficent; bounteous; gracious;
        propitious; generous; forbearing; indulgent; tender;
        humane; compassionate; good; lenient; clement; mild;
        gentle; bland; obliging; friendly; amicable. See
        {Obliging}.
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Kind \Kind\, n. [OE. kinde, cunde, AS. cynd. See {Kind}, a.]
   1. Nature; natural instinct or disposition. [Obs.]
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            He knew by kind and by no other lore. --Chaucer.
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            Some of you, on pure instinct of nature,
            Are led by kind t'admire your fellow-creature.
                                                  --Dryden.
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   2. Race; genus; species; generic class; as, in mankind or
      humankind. "Come of so low a kind." --Chaucer.
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            Every kind of beasts, and of birds.   --James iii.7.
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            She follows the law of her kind.      --Wordsworth.
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            Here to sow the seed of bread,
            That man and all the kinds be fed.    --Emerson.
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   3. Sort; type; class; nature; style; character; fashion;
      manner; variety; description; as, there are several kinds
      of eloquence, of style, and of music; many kinds of
      government; various kinds of soil, etc.
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            How diversely Love doth his pageants play,
            And snows his power in variable kinds ! --Spenser.
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            There is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of
            beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. --I
                                                  Cor. xv. 39.
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            Diogenes was asked in a kind of scorn: What was the
            matter that philosophers haunted rich men, and not
            rich men philosophers?                --Bacon.
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   {A kind of}, something belonging to the class of; something
      like to; -- said loosely or slightingly.

   {In kind}, in the produce or designated commodity itself, as
      distinguished from its value in money.
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            Tax on tillage was often levied in kind upon corn.
                                                  --Arbuthnot.

   Syn: Sort; species; type; class; genus; nature; style;
        character; breed; set.
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Kind \Kind\, v. t. [See {Kin}.]
   To beget. [Obs.] --Spenser.
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230 Moby Thesaurus words for "kind":
      Christian, Christlike, Christly, accommodating, advantageous,
      affable, affectionate, agreeable, altruistic, amiable, amicable,
      animal kingdom, approachable, auspicious, beneficent, beneficial,
      benevolent, benign, benignant, blood, body-build, bon, bonny,
      brand, braw, breed, brood, brotherly, bueno, capital, cast,
      character, characteristic, characteristics, charitable, clan,
      class, clement, cogent, color, commendable, compassionate,
      complaisant, complexion, compliant, composition, conciliatory,
      congenial, considerate, constituents, constitution, cooperative,
      cordial, courteous, crasis, decent, deme, denomination,
      description, designation, dharma, diathesis, disposition,
      eleemosynary, elegant, estimable, ethos, excellent, expedient,
      fair, family, famous, favorable, feather, fiber, fine, folk,
      forbearing, forgiving, form, frame, fraternal, friendlike,
      friendly, generous, genial, genius, genre, gens, gentle, genus,
      good, good-hearted, good-humored, good-natured, good-tempered,
      goodly, gracious, grain, grand, habit, harmonious, healthy,
      helpful, house, hue, human, humane, humanitarian, humor, humors,
      ilk, indulgent, kidney, kin, kindhearted, kindly, kindly-disposed,
      label, laudable, lenient, line, lineage, long-suffering,
      longanimous, lot, loving, magnanimous, make, makeup, manner, mark,
      matriclan, merciful, mold, nation, nature, neighborlike,
      neighborly, nice, noble, number, obliging, openhearted, order,
      overindulgent, overpermissive, patient, patriclan, peaceable,
      people, permissive, persuasion, philanthropic, phratry, phyle,
      phylum, physique, placable, plant kingdom, pleasant, profitable,
      property, propitious, quality, race, regal, responsive, royal,
      sept, shape, simpatico, sisterly, skillful, sociable, softhearted,
      somatotype, sort, sound, sparing, species, spirit, splendid, stamp,
      stem, stirps, stock, strain, streak, stripe, style, suchness,
      sweet-tempered, sympathetic, sympathique, sympathizing, system,
      temper, temperament, tendency, tender, tenderhearted, tenor,
      the like of, the likes of, thoughtful, tolerant, tone, totem,
      tribe, type, understanding, unhostile, unresentful, unrevengeful,
      useful, valid, variety, vein, very good, virtuous, warm,
      warm-hearted, warmhearted, way, well-affected, well-disposed,
      well-intentioned, well-meaning, well-meant