mercy

Etymology

From 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. Cognate with French merci.

noun

1. (uncountable) Relenting; forbearance to cause or allow harm to another.
   She took mercy on him and quit embarrassing him.
2. (uncountable) Forgiveness or compassion, especially toward those less fortunate.
   Have mercy on the poor and assist them if you can.
3. (uncountable) A tendency toward forgiveness, pity, or compassion.
   Mercy is one of his many virtues.
4. (countable) Instances of forbearance or forgiveness.
   Psalms 40:11 Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O Lord
5. (countable) A blessing; something to be thankful for.
   It was a mercy that we were not inside when the roof collapsed
6. (uncountable) A children's game in which two players stand opposite with hands grasped and twist each other's arms until one gives in.

verb

1. 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.' 1866, Sarah Hammond Palfrey, Herman: Or, Young Knighthood, page 189
   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!" 1867, Henry Mills Alden, Lee Foster Hartman, Frederick Lewis Allen, Harper's Magazine - Volume 34, page 402
   There is not a less mercied pair of rogues within the walls of Ireland these days than you both. 1888, Parnellism and Crime: Further evidence as to murders and outrages
   In vogue, an age, we are interrupted typics of Universal errors; established adults of vaudeville Street shows — but not quite complete or made whole Neither pitied, nor mercied, nor eldered as one Full disguised and costumed. 1965, Equinox: An Anthology of New Writing from the Philippines
   No thank you, I resent being mercied by a thing that is just a imaginary product of suppressive humans who wanna have power over people! June 4, 1996, Adrian Philips, “I think homosexuality destroys the society”, in alt.homosexual (Usenet)
   Thus Jesus represents human nature in a third way — not as mercied outsiders like the Magi, nor as a judged insider like Herod. Jesus is New Israel in person, the fulfilled promise wrapped in the life of a single Jewish child. 2004, Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew: A Commentary - Volume 1, page 73
   For Prevallet, as for Julian, God's love is a “mercying love” in which we are called to live. 2016, Christine M. Bochen, The Way of Mercy
   Jesus's gaze is “mercying”; he looks upon people and things with a love that sees the fullness of what they are and might be. 2017, The Theological and Ecological Vision of Laudato Si'
2. 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 elected Emperor of Germanyd and who mercied her in 1666. 1833, Etienne Achille Réveil, Museum of Painting and Sculpture
   Remember that kid that kept yelling that his father was mercied?” “Mercied?” - “The kid that kept saying his father was killed? 1963, John Brunner, Listen! The Stars!, page 46
   'Hah! Good Samaritan indeed! Then why hasn't she mercied me all these years I've been begging for her pepper-soup on credit? 1999, Chuma Nwokolo, African Tales at Jailpoint, page 86
   Getting mercied sucks. And truth be told, mercying another team sucks. 2005, Randy Howe, Softball for Weekend Warriors
   This was Suttree's trolley token, the one that mercied him, the one that froze him to death. 2010, Peter Josyph, Adventures in Reading Cormac McCarthy, page 23

intj

1. Expressing surprise or alarm.
   Mercy! Look at the state of you!