Word.ws English Dictionary

gentle or simple

gentle or simple adjective: of any social standing.

Adjective

gentle or simple (not comparable)

  1. (archaic) Of any social standing.
    • She is the sweetest-tempered, honestest, worthiest, young creature ; indeed, as to her beauty, I do not commend her on that account, though all men allow she is the handsomest woman, gentle or simple, that ever appeared in the parish.1742, Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews
    • Reader, gentle or simple, or whatever you be, how impatiently by this time must you expect this Preface, supposing it to be nothing but revengeful Invectives against the Author of the second Don Quixote.1743, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, The History of the Renowned Don Quixote de la Mancha

Noun

gentle or simple pl (plural only)

  1. (archaic, plural, plural-only) All people, of any social standing.
    • And who is there amongst the gentle or simple that ever heard my name, that would bring me a cup of butter-milk, though they knew that I was parched with thirst ; or a morsel of bread if I were dying of hunger?1846, Llewelyn's heir; or North Wales, its manners, customs and superstitions, page 76
    • Gentle or simple, man or woman, never came in for flattery at his hand, and hence his criticism of Lady Charlotte's work is worth pages of eulogistic comment.2011, Charles Wilkins, History of the Iron, Steel, Tinplate and Other Trades of Wales, →ISBN, page 129

Forms of gentle or simple

alternative formgentle and simple

Origin of gentle or simple

From gentle in the sense of "noble, well-born".

Questions about gentle or simple

What does gentle or simple mean?
Gentle or simple means of any social standing.
What part of speech is gentle or simple?
Gentle or simple can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near gentle or simple in the dictionary

  1. gentle giants
  2. gentle lemur
  3. gentle lemurs
  4. gentle murder paradox
  5. gentle nor simple
  6. gentle or simple
  7. gentle sex
  8. gentle-handed
  9. gentle-hearted
  10. gentle-heartedly
  11. gentle-heartedness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gentle or simple (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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