a. [f. TRUTH sb. + -FUL.]
1. Of statements, etc.: Full of truth; sincere. (Now only as transf. from 2.)
1596. R. L[inche], Diella, xiii. My truthfull pleadings will not cause you rue.
Mod. A perfectly honest and truthful statement.
2. Of persons (or their attributes): Disposed to tell, or habitually telling, the truth; free from deceitfulness; veracious. (In quot. 1787, Telling the truth, correct in statement.) Also fig. Giving true information, not deceptive (cf. 3).
1787. Berington, Abeill., Pref. 16. I profess to be as accurate as I can, and as truthful as the character of my records will allow.
1816. Scott, Antiq., xx. What my poverty takes awa frae the weight o’ my counsel, grey hairs and a truthfu’ heart should add it twenty times.
1860. W. G. Ward, Nat. & Grace, I. 109. He has given us faculties, which are truthful and not mendacious.
1865. Max Müller, Chips (1880), I. i. 16. In order to discover truth, we must be truthful ourselves.
1866. Reade, G. Gaunt (ed. 2), III. 39. Before he got into this mess he was a singularly truthful person; but now a lie was nothing to him.
3. Of ideas, artistic representation, etc.: Characterized by truth; corresponding with fact or reality; true, accurate, exact.
1859. [implied in TRUTHFULNESS].
1868. E. Edwards, Ralegh, I. x. 163. For a long period, the truthful knowledge of what Spaniards had really achieved was slight.
1871. Routledge’s Ev. Boy’s Ann., Suppl., June, 9. A beautifully executed and truthful portrait.
1885. Swinburne, Misc. (1886), 294. There is none left … whose bright and sweet invention is so fruitful, so truthful, or so delightful as Mrs. Molesworth’s.
