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''largesse'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260124114812-00-⌔

largesse - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

largesse (plural largesses)

  • (uncountable)
    • The trait of being willing to donate money, resources, or time; generosity, liberality.
      • ✤ Synonyms: benevolence, munificence
      • ✤ Antonyms: miserliness, niggardliness, stinginess, tightfistedness
      • ✤ There is no creature impure or vncleane, yf the conſcience of hym that vſeth it be pure and cleane. And albeit there were any impuritie in the meate, yet with himnes wherwith the larges of god is prayſed before meate and with holy wordes and prayers it ſhoulde be made holy and pure, that before was vncleane.1
      • ✤ But vvhere the Plea of the Receivers is equal, and yet the Diſpenſation of the Benefits vaſtly unequal, there Men are taught that the thing received is Grace; and that they have no claim to it, but the courteſy of the Diſpenſer, and the largeſs of Heaven; vvhich cannot be queſtion’d, […]2
      • ✤ But the dynasty of the Gothic king is in equity and compassion, and his arithmetic is in largesse.3
      • ✤ He [Gabriel Matzneff] was invited to the Élysée Palace by President François Mitterrand and socialized with the far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. He benefited from the largess of the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, the business tycoon Pierre Bergé.4
    • Often preceded bydo*,give, or* make: the generous or liberal giving of gifts or money, especially by someone of high standing on a special occasion; also, excessive or wasteful giving.
      • ✤ In such case, certainly I would accept/Your bounty: better I than alien hearts/Should execute your planned benevolence/To man, your proposed largess to the Church.5
    • Money, etc., given in this way.
      • ✤ [F]or our coffers vvith too great a court,/And liberall larges are grovven ſomevvhat light,/VVe are inforſt to farm our royall Realme,/The reuenevv vvhereof ſhall furniſh vs,/For our affaires in hand […]6
      • ✤ Yet half mankind maintain a churliſh ſtrife/VVith him, the donor of eternal life,/Becauſe the deed by vvhich his love confirms/The largeſs he beſtovvs, preſcribes the terms.7
      • ✤ The procession was brought to a close, by some dozen indomitable warriors of different nations, riding two and two, and haughtily surveying the tame population of Modena: among whom, however, they occasionally condescended to scatter largesse in the form of a few handbills.8
      • ✤ * Largesse, in the form of odds and ends of cold cream and pomatum, and also of hairpins, was freely distributed among the attendants.*9
    • (figuratively) Abundance of something (chiefly beneficial), regarded as having been given generously.
      • ✤ Synonym: bounty
      • ✤ The man to ſolitude accuſtomed long,/Perceives in every thing that lives a tongue;/[…]/After long drought, vvhen rains abundant fall,/He hears the herbs and flovvers rejoicing all:/Knovvs vvhat the freſhneſs of their hue implies,/Hovv glad they catch the largeſs of the skies; […]10
      • ✤ I have not lacked thy mild reproof,/Nor golden largess of thy praise,/But life is full of weary days.11
      • ✤ The effect on the company of this wholly unexpected act of grace - largesse of beer from a curate - was electrifying.12
      • ✤ During this period of economic uncertainty, when our standard of living — formerly based upon a larger share of global largesse than we’re entitled to — has begun to fall, political and economic hysteria is on the rise.13
    • (obsolete) Chiefly in the form at one’s largesse: freedom or liberty to act.
      • ✤ This captaine then falling in companie vvith a knot of Caualieros, and diſcourſing of the largeſſe & liberty, vvhich ſouldiers enjoy in Italie, in a certaine demand, vvhich one of them made him, he gaue him the you becauſe he vvas native of that place, and the ſonne of meane parents, born in a village of ſome fevv houſes: […]14
  • (countable)
    • An act of donating or giving generously.
      • ✤ So theſe loſing the true glory of virtue vvhich every one ought to have, flie to that vvhich depends upon complaiſance vvith others, courting vulgar applauſe vvith Largeſſes and feaſts.15
    • (also figuratively) A specific gift of money, etc., given in this way, specifically (historical) at harvest time; a donation, a gratuity.
      • ✤ Giue gloues to thy reapers, a larges to crie,/And dailie to loiterers haue a good eie.16
      • ✤ Then to our Pallace/Paſſe on in ſtate, let all raryeties/Showre downe from heauen a lardges, that theſe bridals/May exceede mortall pompe.17
      • ✤ [T]here vvas good hope that the ſouldiers ſhould have a largeſs dealt amongſt them out of the Kings Treaſure, and be under the command of Captains of better quality, […]18
      • ✤ […] I vvould give them three Days, provided, they vvere vvilling to give the Men a Largeſs, as I had done, in Proportion to their Gain.19
      • ✤ And he, their courtesy to requite,/Gave them a chain of twelve marks weight,/All as he lighted down./“Now largesse, largesse, Lord Marmion,/Knight of the crest of gold!/A blazon’d shield, in battle won,/Ne’er guarded heart so bold.”— […]20

Etymology

From Middle English larges, largess, largesse [and other forms],21 from Anglo-Norman largece, largesce, Middle French largece, largesce, largesse, and Old French largesce (“breadth, width; request for a monetary gift; (act of) generous giving; (chiefly in the plural) generous gift; generosity, liberality”) (in Anglo-Norman also “liberty; privilege”; modern French largesse),22 from large (“big, large; generous; wide”).

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /lɑːˈ(d)ʒɛs/
  • (General American) IPA: /lɑɹˈ(d)ʒɛs/
  • Audio (General American): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -ɛs
  • Hyphenation: larg‧esse

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 1549 February 10 (Gregorian calendar; indicated as 1548), Erasmus, “The Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the Fyrst Epistle of S. Paule The Apostle to Timothee. The.iiii. Chapter.”, in Nicolas Udall [i.e., Nicholas Udall], transl., The First Tome or Volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the Newe Testamente, London: […] Edwarde Whitchurche, →OCLC, folio xii, recto: ↩

  2. 1666 January 4 (date delivered; Gregorian calendar); first published 1698, Robert South, “Jesus of Nazareth Proved the True, and Onely Promised Messiah. In a Sermon Preached at St Mary’s, Oxon. before the University, on Christmas-Day, 1665.”, in Twelve Sermons upon Several Subjects and Occasions, volume III, London: […] Tho[mas] Warren for Thomas Bennet […], →OCLC, page 378: ↩

  3. 1873, John Ruskin, “Franchise”, in Val d’Arno: Ten Lectures on the Tuscan Art Directly Antecedent to the Florentine Year of Victories. […], London: George Allen, […], published 1890, →OCLC, page 165: ↩

  4. 2020 February 11, Norimitsu Onishi, “A pedophile writer is on trial. So are the French elites.”, in The New York Times ‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 March 2023: ↩

  5. 1873 January 23, Robert Browning, “Part IV”, in Red Cotton Night-Cap Country: Or Turf and Towers, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 256: ↩

  6. 1595 December 9 (first known performance), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedie of King Richard the Second. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Simmes for Androw Wise, […], published 1597, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]: ↩

  7. 1782, William Cowper, “Hope”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 157: ↩

  8. 1846, Charles Dickens, “To Parma, Modena, and Bologna”, in Pictures from Italy, London: […] Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC, page 94: ↩

  9. 1870 April–September, Charles Dickens, “Both at Their Best”, in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1870, →OCLC, page 97: ↩

  10. 1785, William Cowper, “The Needless Alarm. A Tale.”, in Poems […], London: […] [F] or J[oseph] Johnson, […] by T[homas] Bensley, […], published 1806, →OCLC, page 570: ↩

  11. 1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “To ——”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza I, page 2: ↩

  12. 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 18: ↩

  13. 1994 October, Harry Hay, “Focussing On NAMBLA Obscures The Issues”, in Gay Community News, page 19: ↩

  14. 1594, John Huarte [i.e., Juan Huarte de San Juan], “By what Meanes It may be Shewed, to what Difference of Abilitie the Art of Warfare Appertaineth, and by what Signes the Man may be Knowen, who is Endowed with this Maner of Wit”, in Richard Carew, transl., Examen de Ingenios. The Examination of Mens Wits. […], London: […] Adam Jslip, for Richard Watkins, →OCLC, page 225: ↩

  15. 1655, Thomas Stanley, “[Socrates.]”, in The History of Philosophy. […], volume I, London: […] Humphrey Moseley, and Thomas Dring, […], →OCLC, 3rd part (Containing the Socratick Philosophers), Socrates His Epistles, epist[le] VI, page 63: ↩

  16. 1878, Thomas Tusser, “Augusts Husbandrie”, in Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], →OCLC; republished as W[illiam] Payne, Sidney J [ohn Hervon] Herrtage, editors, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], 1878, →OCLC, stanza 9, page 129: ↩

  17. 1611, Thomas Heywood, “The Golden Age: Or The Liues of Jupiter and Saturne, with the Deifying of the Heathen Gods. […]”, in The Dramatic Works of Thomas Heywood […], volume III, London: John Pearson […], published 1874, →OCLC, Act III, page 52: ↩

  18. 1659, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “[Book XXIV]”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane Historie […], London: […] W. Hunt, for George Sawbridge, […], →OCLC, page 422: ↩

  19. 1725, [Daniel Defoe], “Part I”, in A New Voyage Round the World, by a Course Never Sailed before. […], London: […] A[rthur] Bettesworth, […]; and W. Mears, […], →OCLC, page 187: ↩

  20. 1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Canto First. The Castle.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC, stanza XIV, pages 32–33: ↩

  21. “lā̆rǧes(se, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

  22. “largesse, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2023; “largesse, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. ↩

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