Definitions for: Ingenuous


[adj] characterized by an inability to mask your feelings; not devious; "an ingenuous admission of responsibility"
[adj] lacking in sophistication or worldliness; "a child's innocent stare"; "his ingenuous explanation that he would not have burned the church if he had not thought the bishop was in it"



Webster (1913) Definition: In*gen"u*ous, 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.

Note: (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. --G. P. Marsh.

Syn: Open; frank; unreserved; artless; plain; sincere;
candid; fair; noble; generous.

Usage: Ingenuous, Open, Frank. One who is open speaks
out at once what is uppermost in his mind; one who is
frank does it from a natural boldness, or dislike of
self-restraint; one who is ingenuous is actuated by a
native simplicity and artlessness, which make him
willing to confess faults, and make known his
sentiments without reserve. See Candid.

Synonyms: artless, candid, innocent, open, undistorted

Antonyms: artful, disingenuous

See Also: naif, naive, sincere

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