ppl. a.
1. Of a person: Having good intentions.
1598. Parsons, in Archpriest Controv. (Camden), I. 25. Yf the magistrates were knowen to be godly and well intentioned men.
1716. Addison, Freeholder, No. 50, ¶ 2. Among us, This has been a mark of such well-intentioned persons, as would betray their country, if they were able.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 681. Believing me a well-intentioned body, but a little bewildered by dealing too much among heathen authors.
1828. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. III. 115. Dame Banks was in fact a well-intentioned, worthy woman.
1839. Burgon, Sir T. Gresham, I. ii. 65. The truth seems to be, that however well intentioned, he did not possess the requisite abilities for the office he filled.
1857. Buckle, Civiliz., I. vii. 327. These well-intentioned, though mistaken, men.
2. Of actions, utterances, etc.: Due to or based upon good intentions.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, iii. Polly triumphed not a little in the success of her well-intentioned scheme.
1875. Jevons, Money, viii. 81. Many well-intentioned efforts to reform a currency have thus been frustrated.
1885. American, XI. 44/1. ‘Immortality Inherent in Nature,’ by W. S. Barlow is a well-intentioned argument, as we may say, against materialistic tendencies.
Hence Well-intentionedness.
1799. Coleridge, Lett. (1895), 315. I see enough of the boy to be fully convinced of his goodness and well-intentionedness.
