- amiable
- amiable, good-natured, obliging, complaisant mean having or manifesting the desire or disposition to please. All may refer either to moods or to temperaments.Amiable usually implies friendliness, affability, or kindliness, qualities that inspire liking{
from what he said of Miss Darcy, I was thoroughly prepared to see a proud, reserved, disagreeable girl. Yet he . . . must know that she was as amiable and unpretending as we have found her— Austen
}Often, however, the word suggests little more than a sweet temper{preferred an amiable softness to a tragic intensity— Glasgow
}Occasionally it additionally connotes lack of firmness or strength{she suddenly married a poor, good- for-nothing, amiable fellow— Deland
}Good-natured implies a disposition not only to please but to be pleased; consequently it often connotes undue compliance or indifference to imposition{he was too good-natured a man to behave harshly— Macaulay
}{horseplay and practical jokes . . . at weddings . . . require good-natured toleration— Sumner
}Obliging stresses a readiness to be helpful, or to accommodate to the wishes of others{Keppel had a sweet and obliging temper— Macaulay
}{he always had the courtesy to answer me, for he was a most obliging fellow— Keith
}Complaisant implies a courteous or sometimes a weakly amiable desire to please or to be agreeable{her importunity prevailed with me and I am extremely glad I was so complaisant— Montagu
}Analogous words: *gracious, cordial, affable, genial: warmhearted, warm, responsive, *tender: kindly, *kind, benignant, benignAntonyms: unamiable: surlyContrasted words: ungracious, *rude, ill-mannered, discourteous, impolite: *sullen, glum, morose, crabbed, dour
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.