graceful
English
Alternative forms
- gracefull (archaic)
Etymology
From Middle English graceful; equivalent to grace + -ful.
Pronunciation
- (UK, US) IPA(key): /ˈɡɹeɪsfʊl/
Audio (US) (file)
Adjective
graceful (comparative more graceful, superlative most graceful)
- Having or showing grace in movement, shape, or proportion.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess:
- The half-dozen pieces […] were painted white and carved with festoons of flowers, birds and cupids. […] The bed was the most extravagant piece. Its graceful cane halftester rose high towards the cornice and was so festooned in carved white wood that the effect was positively insecure, as if the great couch were trimmed with icing sugar.
- She is a graceful dancer.
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- Magnanimous, lacking arrogance or complaint; gracious.
- The athlete's graceful acceptance of the controversial second-place finish won the admiration of the spectators.
- (computing) Gradual and non-disruptive.
- 2009, Dale Liu, Cisco Router and Switch Forensics:
- Bringing a system down cleanly will preserve the operating system and some log files, but again will destroy the contents of the RAM (the volatile data). Windows and Linux are two operating systems that require a graceful shutdown.
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Antonyms
- graceless
- clumsy
Derived terms
- graceful degradation
- gracefulness
Related terms
- grace
Translations
showing grace
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See also
- gracious
Middle English
Etymology
From grace + -ful.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈɡraːsful/
Adjective
graceful
- (rare, Late Middle English) Giving grace; grace-inducing.
- (rare, Late Middle English) nice, kindly
Descendants
- English: graceful
- Scots: gracefu
References
- “grāceful, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-14.