kindliness

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The state of feeling kindly towards someone or something, or the actions inspired thereby.

   “Elmo looked upon his only granddaughter with kindliness, and often relented to her demands for chocolate.”

   “A father: no: In kynde a Father, but not in kyndlynes.”

   “1774, Henry Home, Lord Kames, Sketches of the History of Man, Edinburgh: A. Strahan & T. Cadell, 1788, Volume 3, Sketch 10, Public Police with respect to the Poor, pp. 98-99, Creatures loathsome by disease or nastiness, affect the air in a poor-house; and have little chance for life, without more care and kindliness than can be expected from servants, rendered callous by continual scenes of misery.”

   “The dairyman, who rented the cows of Lodge, and knew perfectly the tall milkmaid's history, with manly kindliness always kept the gossip in the cow-barton from annoying Rhoda.”

   “Suddenly I forgot the bickerings of my uncle and brother and was overcome with tenderness and grief for my father. A rush from my memory of many clumsy kindlinesses, a realisation of the loss of his companionship came to me.”

2. (archaic, countable, uncountable)Favourableness; mildness.

   “To the end that Kindliness of Nature may endure, chafing with Oyl in a moderate Quantity and Quality is very good for Men of decrepit Age, and for those that are growing Old.”

   “1803, The Farmer’s Magazine, Edinburgh: Archibald Constable, Volume 4, No. 15, August 1803, Review of agricultural publications, “General View of the Agriculture of the Counties of Roxburgh and Selkirk,” p. 318, The one third of the sheep kept are of the short-bodied, black-faced, coarse-wooled kinds; which our author justly celebrates, as highly adapted for coarser pasture, from their hardiness and superior kindliness in feeding.”

3. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Naturalness.