Ingenuous word meaning and definition

[adjective] characterized by an inability to mask your feelings; not devious; "an ingenuous admission of responsibility"
[adjective] lacking in sophistication or worldliness; "a child's innocent stare"; "his ingenuous explanation that he would not have burned the church if he had not thought the bishop was in it"

\In*gen"u*ous\, a. [L. ingenuus inborn, innate, freeborn, noble, frank; pref. in- in + the root of gignere to beget. See {Genius}, and cf. {Ingenious}.] 1. Of honorable extraction; freeborn; noble; as, ingenuous blood of birth. 2. Noble; generous; magnanimous; honorable; upright; high-minded; as, an ingenuous ardor or zeal. If an ingenuous detestation of falsehood be but carefully and early instilled, that is the true and genuine method to obviate dishonesty. --Locke. 3. Free from reserve, disguise, equivocation, or dissimulation; open; frank; as, an ingenuous man; an ingenuous declaration, confession, etc. Sensible in myself . . . what a burden it is for me, who would be ingenuous, to be loaded with courtesies which he hath not the least hope to requite or deserve. --Fuller. 4. Ingenious. [Obs.] --Shak. Note: (Formerly) printers did not discriminate between . . . ingenuous and ingenious, and these words were used or rather printed interchangeably almost to the beginning of the eighteenth century. --G. P. Marsh. Syn: Open; frank; unreserved; artless; plain; sincere; candid; fair; noble; generous. Usage: {Ingenuous}, {Open}, {Frank}. One who is open speaks out at once what is uppermost in his mind; one who is frank does it from a natural boldness, or dislike of self-restraint; one who is ingenuous is actuated by a native simplicity and artlessness, which make him willing to confess faults, and make known his sentiments without reserve. See {Candid}.

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