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AMIABLE.
Synonyms:
| agreeable, | engaging, | lovable, | pleasing, |
| attractive, | gentle, | lovely, | sweet, |
| benignant, | good-natured, | loving, | winning, |
| harming, | kind, | pleasant, | winsome. |
Amiable combines the senses of lovable or lovely and loving; the amiable character has ready affection and kindliness for others, with the qualities that are adapted to win their love; amiable is a higher and stronger word than good-natured or agreeable. Lovely is often applied to externals; as, a lovely face. Amiable denotes a disposition desirous to cheer, please, and make happy. A selfish man of the world may have the art to be agreeable; a handsome, brilliant, and witty person may be charming or even attractive, while by no means amiable. The engaging, winning, and winsome add to amiability something of beauty, accomplishments, and grace. The benignant are calmly kind, as from a height and a distance. Kind, good-natured people may be coarse and rude, and so fail to be agreeable or pleasing; the really amiable are likely to avoid such faults by their earnest desire to please. The good-natured have an easy disposition to get along comfortably with every one in all circumstances. A sweet disposition is very sure to be amiable, the loving heart bringing out all that is lovable and lovely in character.
Antonyms:
| acrimonious, | crusty, | hateful, | ill-tempered, | surly, |
| churlish, | disagreeable, | ill-conditioned, | morose, | unamiable, |
| crabbed, | dogged, | ill-humored, | sour, | unlovely, |
| cruel, | gruff, | ill-natured, | sullen, | |
AMID.
Synonyms:
| amidst, | amongst, | betwixt, | mingled with, |
| among, | between, | in the midst of, | surrounded by. |
Amid or amidst denotes surrounded by; among or amongst denotes mingled with. Between (archaic or poetic, betwixt) is said of two persons or objects, or of two groups of persons or objects. "Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen," Gen. xiii, 9; the reference being to two bodies of herdmen. Amid denotes mere position; among, some active relation, as of companionship, hostility, etc. Lowell's "Among my Books" regards the books as companions; amid my books would suggest packing, storing, or some other incidental circumstance. We say among friends, or among enemies, amidst the woods, amid the shadows. In the[43] midst of may have merely the local meaning; as, I found myself in the midst of a crowd; or it may express even closer association than among; as, "I found myself in the midst of friends" suggests their pressing up on every side, oneself the central object; so, "where two or three are met together in my name, there am I in the midst of them," Matt. xviii, 20; in which case it would be feebler to say "among them," impossible to say "amid them," not so well to say "amidst them."
Antonyms:
| afar from, | away from, | beyond, | far from, | outside, | without. |
AMPLIFY.
Synonyms:
| augment, | dilate, | expand, | extend, | unfold, |
| develop, | enlarge, | expatiate, | increase, | widen. |
Amplify is now rarely used in the sense of increase, to add material substance, bulk, volume, or the like; it is now almost wholly applied to discourse or writing, signifying to make fuller in statement, whether with or without adding matter of importance, as by stating fully what was before only implied, or by adding illustrations to make the meaning more readily apprehended, etc. The chief difficulty of very young writers is to amplify, to get beyond the bare curt statement by developing, expanding, unfolding the thought. The chief difficulty of those who have more material and experience is to condense sufficiently. So, in the early days of our literature amplify was used in the favorable sense; but at present this word and most kindred words are coming to share the derogatory meaning that has long attached to expatiate. We may develop a thought, expand an illustration, extend a discussion, expatiate on a hobby, dilate on something joyous or sad, enlarge a volume, unfold a scheme, widen the range of treatment.
Antonyms:
| abbreviate, | amputate, | condense, | cut down, | reduce, | summarize, |
| abridge, | "boil down," | curtail, | epitomize, | retrench, |
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