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grateful

 - 3 dictionary results

grate⋅ful

  [greyt-fuhl]
Use grateful in a Sentence
–adjective
1. warmly or deeply appreciative of kindness or benefits received; thankful: I am grateful to you for your help.
2. expressing or actuated by gratitude: a grateful letter.
3. pleasing to the mind or senses; agreeable or welcome; refreshing: a grateful breeze.
Origin:
1545–55; obs. grate pleasing (< L grātus) + -ful

Related forms:
grate⋅ful⋅ly, adverb
grate⋅ful⋅ness, noun

Synonyms:
1. obliged, indebted. Grateful, thankful describe an appreciative attitude for what one has received. Grateful indicates a warm or deep appreciation of personal kindness as shown to one: grateful for favors; grateful to one's neighbors for help in time of trouble. Thankful indicates a disposition to express gratitude by giving thanks, as to a benefactor or to a merciful Providence; there is often a sense of deliverance as well as of appreciation: thankful that one's life was spared in an accident; thankful for the comfort of one's general situation. 3. pleasant, gratifying, satisfying.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To grateful
grate·ful   (grāt'fəl)   
adj.  

  1. Appreciative of benefits received; thankful.

  2. Expressing gratitude.

  3. Affording pleasure or comfort; agreeable.


[From obsolete grate, pleasing, from Latin grātus; see gwerə-2 in Indo-European roots.]
grate'ful·ly adv., grate'ful·ness n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

grateful 
1552, from obsolete adj. grate "agreeable, thankful," from L. gratus "pleasing" (see grace). "A most unusual formation" [Weekley]. Hard to think of another case where Eng. uses -ful to make an adj. from an adj. Grateful Dead, the San Francisco rock band, took its name, according to Jerry Garcia, from a dictionary entry he saw about the folk tale motif of a wanderer who gives his last penny to pay for a corpse's burial, then is magically aided by the spirit of the dead person. A different version of the concept is found in the Hebrew Kaddish and the Egyptian Book of the Dead.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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