candid

comparative more candid · comparative candider · superlative most candid · superlative candidest

1. Impartial and free from prejudice.

   He knew not where to look for faithful advice, efficient aid, or candid judgement.

   1828, Washington Irving, A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: G. & C. Carvill, […], →OCLC, book XII, page 269

   1 more example

   Asked about the Brexit vote, the candid president told Marr: «I am not the one to judge or comment on the decision of your people.»

   2018 January 21, Oli Smith, The Sunday Express

   Synonyms: unbiased, unprejudiced, cold, clinical, detached, egal, equal, equitable

2. Straightforward, open and sincere, whether people find either refreshing or distasteful.

   a surprisingly candid admission of guilt

   3 more examples

   “I know you do; and it is that which makes the wonder. With your good sense, to be so honestly blind to the follies and nonsense of others! Affectation of candour is common enough;—one meets with it everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design—to take the good of everybody's character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad—belongs to you alone.[…]”

   1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter IV, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 29

   My candid opinion was that it was all rubbish!

   1871, A Journey to the Center of the Earth, translation of original by Jules Verne

   Sam Altman, the chief executive and co-founder of OpenAI, has been ousted from his own company after its board accused him of “being not consistently candid in his communications”.

   2023 November 18, Blake Montgomery, Dani Anguiano, “OpenAI fires co-founder and CEO Sam Altman for allegedly lying to company board”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   Synonyms: frank, parrhesiastic, unreserved, outright, point-blank

3. Unposed or rehearsed.

   Will the introduction of supplementary flash or flood intrude on a candid picture situation or ruin the mood?

   2002, Popular Photography

4. obsoleteBright; white.

   The Box receives all Black, but, pour'd from thence, / The Stones came candid forth; the Hue of Innocence.

   1717, Catcott, Samuel Croxall, John Dryden, Samuel Garth, Leonard Welsted, “Book XV”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 511

plural candids

1. A spontaneous or unposed photograph.

   His portraits looked stiff and formal but his candids showed life being lived.

   1 more example

   When he held the Guild Chair, the office walls were not, as they are now, festooned with orchestrated candids of Chancre and municipal burghers, Chancre herding his porcine family in their Sunday best.

   1999, Colson Whitehead, The Intuitionist, Fleet (2017), page 137