Find the word definition

Crossword clues for benign

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
benign
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
malignant/benign tumour (=caused by or not caused by cancer)
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
environmentally
▪ Mr. Trippier My right hon. Friend is not environmentally benign but environmentally friendly.
▪ They started buying artifacts that they saw as environmentally benign - with remarkable effect.
more
▪ It may be that the best corrective to them arises from frequent interaction with a more benign reality.
▪ Fortunately, inter-agency rivalries are usually more benign.
▪ We report photographic follow-up of patients with 3 or more clinically atypical naevi and 20 or more benign naevi.
▪ After a successful revolution, however, a more benign and positive state can be installed.
▪ The door was pushed open and Zak Smythe, who grew more benign as the days went by, appeared.
▪ All are testimony to a wetter, more benign past.
▪ Instead, a somewhat more benign Major nightmare has only just begun.
▪ The climate becomes more benign as we move nearer to the Black Sea.
most
▪ But gifts such as these can not be awarded to everybody, either by judges or by the most benign of governments.
▪ There were some medical books, two technical manuals for radiology equipment, and office supplies of the most benign sort.
relatively
▪ In relatively benign environments, predation is the dominant biological interaction that structures communities. 2.
▪ One advantage that Roundup has over other herbicides is that it is relatively benign to the environment.
■ NOUN
neglect
▪ Indeed, after years of benign neglect, the job of booking acts for Reading became every promoter's dream.
▪ Yet at the same time he offers the black underclass, and its more urgent needs, little more than benign neglect.
▪ Where interiors have survived, it has been through benign neglect.
▪ Given the performance of most bond funds the past three years, perhaps some benign neglect was in order.
▪ A decade of benign neglect of energy policies has been abruptly spotlighted in the blockaded streets of London, Brussels and Paris.
▪ Leadership was a subject that had suffered benign neglect among the managers.
▪ A policy worthy of the suspicion of benign neglect.
stricture
▪ The pathogenesis of benign stricture formation in ulcerative colitis remains uncertain.
▪ It is not certain whether benign strictures degenerate into malignancy or whether malignant strictures are carcinomas to start with.
▪ The rectum was the commonest site of benign strictures, 68% in our study, as in others.
▪ In fact, there seems to be a general predilection of benign strictures for the left side of the colon.
▪ Of the patients with benign strictures, 32 had universal colitis and 10 had left sided involvement alone.
▪ Although these strictures are more difficult to dilate than other benign strictures, in experienced hands most patients can be treated successfully.
▪ Only four of the 42 patients with benign strictures had constipation and none had evidence of intestinal obstruction.
▪ In one case of benign stricture, the endoscopy biopsy specimen was reported as being suspicious for malignancy.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a benign tumor
▪ the animal's benign nature
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But gifts such as these can not be awarded to everybody, either by judges or by the most benign of governments.
▪ If kept in a small cul-de-sac by itself, it will be utterly benign.
▪ Perhaps the expansion can continue and possibly it will one day taper off in benign fashion.
▪ Police spoke of a benign new law enforcement tactic no more intrusive than a video camera at a convenience store.
▪ The benign old woman wore a big flowered garden hat and tended a magical flower garden.
▪ There is an hierarchical structure, but managerial authority is respected as a benign guardian of company interests.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Benign

Benign \Be*nign"\, a. [OE. benigne, bening, OF. benigne, F. b['e]nin, fem. b['e]nigne, fr. L. benignus, contr. from benigenus; bonus good + root of genus kind. See Bounty, and Genus.]

  1. Of a kind or gentle disposition; gracious; generous; favorable; benignant.

    Creator bounteous and benign.
    --Milton.

  2. Exhibiting or manifesting kindness, gentleness, favor, etc.; mild; kindly; salutary; wholesome.

    Kind influences and benign aspects.
    --South.

  3. Of a mild type or character; as, a benign disease.

    Syn: Kind; propitious; bland; genial; salubrious; favorable salutary; gracious; liberal.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
benign

early 14c., from Old French benigne (12c., "kind, benign, merciful, gracious;" Modern French bénin, fem. bénigne), from Latin benignus "kindly, kindhearted, friendly, generous," literally "well born," from bene "well" (see bene-) + gignere "to bear, beget," from genus "birth" (see genus). For similar sense evolution, compare gentle, kind (adj.), generous. Related: Benignly.

Wiktionary
benign

a. 1 kind; gentle; mild. 2 (context medicine English) Not pose any serious threat to health; not particularly aggressive or recurrent.

WordNet
benign
  1. adj. not dangerous to health; not recurrent or progressive (especially of a tumor) [ant: malignant]

  2. pleasant and beneficial in nature or influence; "a benign smile"; "the benign sky"; "the benign influence of pure air" [syn: benignant] [ant: malign]

  3. of disposition or manner; "the benign ruler of millions"; "benign intentions"

Wikipedia
Benign (disambiguation)

Benign may refer to:

  • Benignity, medical term describing harmless conditions
  • The Benign Prerogative, episode 99 of US television series The West Wing
  • Benign Violation Theory, see Theories of humour

Usage examples of "benign".

It was warm in the sunlight, the weather accursedly benign, a scattering of soft clouds.

Sancta and Premio Sancto are not so benign, even as they give their blessing.

There were some medical books, two technical manuals for radiology equipment, and office supplies of the most benign sort.

The yellow bushes, the fragrant and benign Golden Iridens, had been mingled with Sangeet Mobilus.

Philadelphian named George Scithers, had got the magazine off to a fast start, with Asimov himself as a benign guiding presence in the background, and it grew so quickly in popularity that its publishing frequency increased from quarterly at the outset to bi-monthly in 1978 and monthly a year later.

So a shambolic group, of all heights and body weights, were shifting about in their motley homespun tunics, while Fusculus gave benign instructions when he felt like it.

Mr Sommon still frolics with his ex-wife, aka Mrs Susanne Eggers, currently leasing Saffron Fields with her new husband, the benign portrait-hunting Taylor Eggers?

Kesselbaum pointed out to her, not as a criticism, Stoner dear, but so that she would be careful to surround herself with benign environments and loving persons.

Gone was the look of stunned confusion, and in its place, an expression so benign that the only hint of anxiety came from her fist clutching at the skirt of her gown.

David and Abraham running things in Melbourne and himself in Hobart and all of it under his own reasonably benign chairmanship.

I would like to ask you if there could be benign associations-Could you for example associate mescaline with apomorphine on a molecular level?

Not the benign and just devas that civilized Aryas worshipped, but the primordial spirit-lords that the Asura races bowed toas did a few discontented Aryas like Manthara herself.

If anything, this practice is viewed as a sensuous form of autoeroticism in which the vibrator is but a benign mechanism of pleasure.

The Marchioness di Barolo, whose name is linked to his in the memory of so pure and benign a union of friendship, lived the life, died the death, and bequeathed the renown of a saint.

He was the very model of the perfect Camorrista, benign and law-abiding on the surface, brutal and treacherous below it.