Kind — Defs

01 a. Characteristic of the species; belonging to one's nature; natural; native.

1.
Characteristic of the species; belonging to one's nature; natural; native.[Obs.]
“It becometh sweeter than it should be, and loseth the kind taste.” — Holland.
2.
Having feelings befitting our common nature; congenial; sympathetic; as, a kind man; a kind heart.
“Yet was he kind, or if severe in aught, The love he bore to learning was his fault.” — Goldsmith.
3.
Showing tenderness or goodness; disposed to do good and confer happiness; averse to hurting or paining; benevolent; benignant; gracious.
“He is kind unto the unthankful and to evil.” — Luke vi 35.

“O cruel Death, to those you take more kind Than to the wretched mortals left behind.” — Waller.

“A fellow feeling makes one wondrous kind.” — Garrick.
4.
Proceeding from, or characterized by, goodness, gentleness, or benevolence; as, a kind act.
5.
Gentle; tractable; easily governed; as, a horse kind in harness.

02 n. Nature; natural instinct or disposition.

1.
Nature; natural instinct or disposition.[Obs.]
“He knew by kind and by no other lore.” — Chaucer.

“Some of you, on pure instinct of nature, Are led by kind t'admire your fellow-creature.” — Dryden.
2.
Race; genus; species; generic class; as, in mankind or humankind.
“Every kind of beasts, and of birds.” — James iii.7.

“She follows the law of her kind.” — Wordsworth.

“Here to sow the seed of bread, That man and all the kinds be fed.” — Emerson.
3.
Sort; type; class; nature; style; character; fashion; manner; variety; description; as, there are several kinds of eloquence, of style, and of music; many kinds of government; various kinds of soil, etc.
“How diversely Love doth his pageants play, And snows his power in variable kinds !” — Spenser.

“There is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.” — I Cor. xv. 39.

“Diogenes was asked in a kind of scorn: What was the matter that philosophers haunted rich men, and not rich men philosophers?” — Bacon.

“Tax on tillage was often levied in kind upon corn.” — Arbuthnot.

Phrases & compounds

A kind of — something belonging to the class of; something like to; -- said loosely or slightingly.

In kind — in the produce or designated commodity itself, as distinguished from its value in money.

Syn. Sort; species; type; class; genus; nature; style; character; breed; set.

03 v. t. To beget.