ppl. a.
† 1. Received with approval. Obs.–1
1382. Wyclif, Ps. cxl[i]. 5. In the wel plesid thingus of hem [Vulg. in beneplacitis eorum].
2. Highly gratified or satisfied.
c. 1420. ? Lydg., Assembly of Gods, 180. I am wellplesyd, quod thys Eolus.
1539. Bible (Great), Matt. iii. 17. This is my beloued sonne, in whom I am well pleased.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., IV. x. 25. Sufficeth, that I haue maintaines my state And sends the poore well pleased from my gate.
1619. Drayton, Bar. Wars, III. lxxxiv. 48. Where Welcome look’d with a well-pleased face.
1707. E. Smith, Phædra & Hippolitus, III. 26. The well pleas’d Sun With all his Beams survey’d their guiltless Flame.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, Concl. 118. And home well-pleased we went.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, III. ix. ‘I drink to my hostess and her family,’ says the Prince, with no very well-pleased air.
Hence Well-pleasedly adv., Well-pleasedness.
1633. D. R[ogers], Treat. Sacram., ii. 36. So that former anger is turned into welpleasednesse.
1644. Hammond, Tracts, Consc., § 58. Serving God εὐαρέστως (i. e. either well pleasedly, cheerfully, willingly, or well pleasingly, so as God may and will accept).
1658. Whole Duty Man, vii. § 1. 158. This contentedness is a well-pleasedness with that condition … that God hath placed us.
1701. Beverley, Praise of Glory of Grace, 21. The pure and perfect Eudokia, or the Well-Pleasedness of his Will in it self.
