boons

Noun (1)

boon (plural boons)

1. A good thing; a thing to be thankful for or to appreciate duly.
   • Near-synonyms: gift; blessing, benefit; see also Thesaurus:gift

   Synonyms:

   gift, blessing, benefit, benefaction, concession, donative, fairing, grant, present, tithing

   Antonyms:

   bane

2. That which is asked or granted as a benefit or favor; a gift or benefaction.
   • I gave you life. Can you not return the boon by giving me death, my lord?1871, James De Mille, The Cryptogram, New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC, page 194, column 2
3. (obsolete) A prayer; petition.
   • The wofull husbandman doth lowd complaine, / To ſee his whole yeares labor loſt ſo ſoone, / For which to God he made ſo many an idle boone.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 34, page 503
4. (UK, dialectal) An unpaid service due by a tenant to his lord.
5. (Hinduism) A blessing, typically a supernatural power, granted to an ascetic by a god or goddess.
   • A telling story is that of Vikra, who, after practicing severe tapas for many years, called on Śiva, asking him to grant the boon that whosoever's head he would touch, that person would die instantly.2007, Klaus Klostermaier, A Survey of Hinduism: Third Edition, New York: State University of New York Press, page 38

Noun (2)

boon (uncountable)

1. The woody portion of flax, separated from the fiber as refuse matter by retting, braking, and scutching.

   Synonyms:

   shive, shove

See all 12 meanings of boon