mercy

plural mercies

1. uncountableRelenting; forbearance to cause or allow harm to another.

   She took mercy on him and quit embarrassing him.

   Synonyms: ruth, kindness, leniency, quarter · Antonyms: mercilessness, ruthlessness, cruelty

2. uncountableForgiveness or compassion, especially toward those less fortunate.

   Have mercy on the poor and assist them if you can.

   2 more examples

   He despaired of God's mercy in the same fact, where this presumed of it; he by a decollation of all hope annihilated his mercy, this by an immoderancy thereof destroyed his justice

   1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC

   Beg not for mercy. Behold, blackened sky. Against mine chaos, even gods will die!

   2023 December 18, “Galactus VS Unicron (Marvel Comics VS Transformers)” (16:08 from the start), in DEATH BATTLE!, season 10, episode 16, spoken by Unicron (Brent Mukai)

   Synonyms: pity, sympathy, bowels, commiseration, compassion, empathy, fellow feeling, pity

3. uncountableA tendency toward forgiveness, pity, or compassion.

   Mercy is one of his many virtues.

4. countableInstances of forbearance or forgiveness.

   1982, Bible (NKJV), Psalm 40:11a Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O Lord

5. countableA blessing; something to be thankful for.

   It was a mercy that we were not inside when the roof collapsed

6. uncountableA children's game in which two players stand opposite with hands grasped and twist each other's arms until one gives in.

present singular third person mercies · participle present mercying · participle past mercied · past mercied

1. To feel mercy

   There is not a less mercied pair of rogues within the walls of Ireland these days than you both.

   1888, Parnellism and Crime: Further evidence as to murders and outrages

   5 more examples

   I despised her; but I mercied her, too, and gave her sweet berries to eat, and led her to my lodge, and said to my best wife, ' Get up from my best skin, for the white squaw is a guest, and is weary.'

   1866, Sarah Hammond Palfrey, Herman: Or, Young Knighthood, page 189

   At another time, forgetting "his verse," he attempted part of the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, by repeating, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be mercied!"

   1867, Henry Mills Alden, Lee Foster Hartman, Frederick Lewis Allen, Harper's Magazine - Volume 34, page 402

   In vogue, an age, we are interrupted typics of Universal errors; established adults of vaudeville Street shows — but not quite complete or made whole Neither pitied, nor mercied, nor eldered as one Full disguised and costumed.

   1965, Equinox: An Anthology of New Writing from the Philippines

   No thank you, I resent being mercied by a thing that is just a^([sic]) imaginary product of suppressive humans who wanna have power over people!

   1996 June 4, Adrian Philips, “I think homosexuality destroys the society”, in alt.homosexual (Usenet)

   Thus Jesus represents human nature in a third way — not as mercied outsiders like the Magi, nor as a judged insider like Herod. Jesus is New Israel in person, the fulfilled promise wrapped in the life of a single Jewish child.

   2004, Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew: A Commentary - Volume 1, →ISBN, page 73

2. To show mercy; to pardon or treat leniently because of mercy

   Getting mercied sucks. And truth be told, mercying another team sucks.

   2005, Randy Howe, Softball for Weekend Warriors, →ISBN

   4 more examples

   In the middle of the room is a young Infanta intended for Marguerite Theresa, born in 1651, daughter of Philip the fourth, whose portrait Velasquez took in 1658, to send to Leopold, who had just been elected Emperor of Germanyd and who mercied her in 1666.

   1833, Etienne Achille Réveil, Museum of Painting and Sculpture

   Remember that kid that kept yelling that his father was mercied?” “Mercied?” - “The kid that kept saying his father was killed?

   1963, John Brunner, Listen! The Stars!, page 46

   'Hah! Good Samaritan indeed! Then why hasn't she mercied me all these years I've been begging for her pepper-soup on credit?

   1999, Chuma Nwokolo, African Tales at Jailpoint, page 86

   This was Suttree's trolley token, the one that mercied him, the one that froze him to death.

   2010, Peter Josyph, Adventures in Reading Cormac McCarthy, →ISBN, page 23

1. Expressing surprise or alarm.

   Mercy! Look at the state of you!

   1 more example

   'Three o'clock if possible,' he replied brazenly. 'Six o'clock in any case.' Clifton gave a little shriek of young-ladylike dismay. 'Mercy! Today?' she exclaimed. 'Why, you dear creature, do you know—' 'I know what you can do when you like,' he got in.

   1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries

1. A female given name from English.

   Mr Pecksniff was a moral man — a grave man, a man of noble sentiments and speech — and he had had her christened Mercy. Mercy! oh, what a charming name for such a pure–souled Being as the youngest Miss Pecksniff! Her sister’s name was Charity. There was a good thing! Mercy and Charity!

   1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, chapter 2, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC

plural Mercys

1. A surname from French.