/ˈmɜːsi/, /ˈmɝsi/
OriginFrom Middle English mercy, merci, from Anglo-Norman merci (compare continental Old French merci, mercit), from Latin mercēs (“wages, fee, price”), from merx (“wares, merchandise”). Displaced native Old English mildheortnes (literally "mildheartedness"). Cognate with French merci, whence the doublet merci.
- uncountableRelenting; forbearance to cause or allow harm to another.
“She took mercy on him and quit embarrassing him.”
- uncountableForgiveness or compassion, especially toward those less fortunate.
“Have mercy on the poor and assist them if you can.”
“He despaired of God's mercy in the same fact, where this presumed of it; he by a decollation of all hope annihilated his mercy, this by an immoderancy thereof destroyed his justice”
- uncountableA tendency toward forgiveness, pity, or compassion.
“Mercy is one of his many virtues.”
- countableInstances of forbearance or forgiveness.
“1982, Bible (NKJV), Psalm 40:11a
Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O Lord”
- countableA blessing; something to be thankful for.
“It was a mercy that we were not inside when the roof collapsed”
- uncountableA children's game in which two players stand opposite with hands grasped and twist each other's arms until one gives in.
- To feel mercy
“I despised her; but I mercied her, too, and gave her sweet berries to eat, and led her to my lodge, and said to my best wife, ' Get up from my best skin, for the white squaw is a guest, and is weary.'”
“At another time, forgetting "his verse," he attempted part of the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, by repeating, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be mercied!"”
“There is not a less mercied pair of rogues within the walls of Ireland these days than you both.”
- To show mercy; to pardon or treat leniently because of mercy
“In the middle of the room is a young Infanta intended for Marguerite Theresa, born in 1651, daughter of Philip the fourth, whose portrait Velasquez took in 1658, to send to Leopold, who had just been ”
“Remember that kid that kept yelling that his father was mercied?” “Mercied?” - “The kid that kept saying his father was killed?”
“'Hah! Good Samaritan indeed! Then why hasn't she mercied me all these years I've been begging for her pepper-soup on credit?”
- Expressing surprise or alarm.
“Mercy! Look at the state of you!”
- A female given name from English.
“Mr Pecksniff was a moral man — a grave man, a man of noble sentiments and speech — and he had had her christened Mercy. Mercy! oh, what a charming name for such a pure–souled Being as the youngest Mis”
- A surname from French.
Formsmercies(plural) · mercies(present, singular, third-person) · mercying(participle, present) · mercied(participle, past) · mercied(past) · Mercys(plural)
Source: Wiktionary