1. Of persons: Full of, or abounding in, bounty; graciously liberal, generous. Lady Bountiful, a character in Farquhar’s Beaux’ Stratagem (1707): since used for the great (or beneficent) lady in a neighborhood.
1508. Fisher, Wks. (1876), 172. Thy mercy is … so grete and bountefull to wretched synners.
a. 1577. Sir T. Smith, Commw. Eng. (1609), 27. Higher stomacke, and bountifuller liberality than others.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., III. i. 168. A worthy gentleman … as bountifull as Mynes of India.
1771. Junius Lett., lvi. 294. How much easier it is to be generous than just, and … men are sometimes bountiful who are not honest.
1815. Scott, Paul’s Lett. (1839), 11. Those facts … affect you as a Lady Bountiful.
1830. Macaulay, Southey’s Colloq., Ess. (1854), I. 109/1. He [the magistrate] ought to be … a Lady Bountiful in every parish, a Paul Pry in every house.
1857. Buckle, Civiliz., iii. 142. The richest countries were those in which nature was most bountiful.
2. Of things: Characterized by bounty, abundantly yielding; also, ample, abundant, plenteous.
1538. Starkey, England, 77. Our mother the ground ys so plentuous and bountyful.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, II. ii. 15. That’s a bountifull answere that fits all questions.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 27. 207. A bountiful fire of pine logs was made in the salle à manger.
1885. Manch. Exam., 26 Jan., 5/3. Soil so bountiful that one day’s labour is sufficient to procure three days’ living.
