From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Lenient \Le"ni*ent\ (l[=e]"n[i^]*ent or l[=e]n"yent), adjective [L. leniens, -entis, p. pr. of lenire to soften, fr. lenis soft, mild. Cf. {Lithe}.]
1. Relaxing; emollient; softening; assuasive; -- sometimes followed by of. ''Lenient of grief.'' --Milton.
O?? relax the fibers, are lenient, balsamic. --Arbuthnot.
Time, that on all things lays his lenient hand. --Pope.
2. Mild; clement; merciful; not rigorous or severe; as, a lenient disposition; a lenient judge or sentence.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Lenient \Le"ni*ent\, noun (Med.) A lenitive; an emollient.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
adjective
1: tolerant or lenient; "indulgent parents risk spoiling their children"; "procedures are lax and discipline is weak"; "too soft on the children" [syn: {indulgent}, {lax}, {soft}]
2: not strict; "an easy teacher"; "easy standards"; "lenient rules" [syn: {easy}]
3: characterized by tolerance and mercy
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
95 Moby Thesaurus words for "lenient": Spartan, accepting, accommodating, accommodative, admissive, agreeable, allowing, armed with patience, attentive, balmy, bland, bleeding, careless, charitable, clement, commiserative, compassionate, complaisant, condolent, consenting, considerate, delicate, disciplined, easy, easygoing, endurant, enduring, faint, forbearant, forbearing, forgiving, generous, gentle, heedful, helpful, human, humane, impotent, imprecise, indifferent, indulgent, kind, kindly, lax, long-suffering, longanimous, loose, magnanimous, melting, merciful, mild, mindful, mindful of others, moderate, negligent, nonprohibitive, obliging, overindulgent, overpermissive, patient, patient as Job, permissive, permitting, persevering, philosophical, pitying, regardful, relaxed, remiss, ruthful, self-controlled, slack, slipshod, sloppy, smooth, soft, softhearted, solicitous, sparing, stoic, suffering, sympathetic, sympathizing, tactful, tender, tenderhearted, thoughtful, tolerant, tolerating, tolerative, understanding, unprohibitive, unrestrained, warmhearted, weak
Define.com is a registered nonprofit corporation dedicated solely to the global public interest and the advancement of humanity. It belongs to all of us who have a desire to promote electronic democracy, science, creativity, imagination, reason, critical thinking, peace, race and gender equality, civil rights, equal access to education, personal liberty, free speech, animal rights, compassionate and nonviolent parenting, social and economic justice, global monetary reform, Secular Humanism, cognitive liberty and a permanent cessation of The War on Drugs.
Let's see what we can do if we put our heads together.
0