All 6 Uses of
ingenuous
in
Bleak House
- He was a handsome youth with an ingenuous face and a most engaging laugh; and after she had called him up to where we sat, he stood by us, in the light of the fire, talking gaily, like a light-hearted boy.†
Chpt 1-3
- " "To which Harold Skimpole would reply, you know," he returned in his gayest manner and with his most ingenuous smile, " 'Upon my life I have not the least idea!†
Chpt 16-18 *
- And then he spoke so ingenuously and sincerely of the sacrifice he made in withdrawing himself for a time from Ada, and of the earnestness with which he aspired—as in thought he always did, I know full well—to repay her love, and to ensure her happiness, and to conquer what was amiss in himself, and to acquire the very soul of decision, that he made my heart ache keenly, sorely.†
Chpt 22-24
- He told Ada, in his most ingenuous way, that he had not come to make any secret inroad on the terms she had accepted (rather too implicitly and confidingly, he thought) from Mr. Jarndyce, that he had come openly to see her and to see me and to justify himself for the present terms on which he stood with Mr. Jarndyce.†
Chpt 37-39
- Taking a little more claret and dipping one of the cakes in it, he shook his head and smiled at Ada and me with an ingenuous foreboding that he never could be made to understand.†
Chpt 43-45
- He was much amused and interested when he heard this and said, "No, really?" with ingenuous simplicity.†
Chpt 61-63
Definition:
-
(ingenuous) innocent in the sense of lacking in sophistication or worldliness -- especially in being direct and not masking feelings