[f. as prec. + -ING2.] That forgives; inclined to forgive; indicating forgiveness.
1690. Norris, Beatitudes (1694), I. 188. A mild, meek and forgiving Spirit, that does not keep up the Circulation of Injuries, but lets the Quarrel fall and dye.
1703. Rowe, Fair Penit., IV. i. 1573.
| Alt. I have mark’d him, | |
| To see if one forgiving Glance stole hither, | |
| If any Spark of Friendship were alive, | |
| That wou’d, by Sympathy, at meeting glow, | |
| And strive to kindle up the Flame anew. |
1820. Keats, Isabella, xix.
| O eloquent and famed Boccaccio! | |
| Of thee we now should ask forgiving boon. |
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 458. He was of no gentle or forgiving temper, and could retain during many years a bitter remembrance of small injuries.
Hence Forgivingly adv.; Forgivingness.
1667. Flavel, Saint Indeed (1754), 84. Never did any suffer more and greater abuses from men, than Christ did, and never did any carry it more peaceably and forgivingly.
1742. Richardson, Pamela, III. 82. To think I should act so barbarously as I did, by so much Sweetness, and so much Forgivingness!
1857. W. Collins, Dead Secret, II. V. vi. 196. Remember me forgivingly, Arthur,—words may tell how I have sinned against you; no words can tell how I have loved you!
1865. J. Grote, Moral Ideas, viii. (1876), 114. When they have done us ill we feel and practise revengefulness, indifference, or active forgivingness, the returning of good for evil.
