Definition of: mercy

(mûr′sē) noun plural ·cies
1. The act of treating an offender with less severity than he deserves; also, forbearance to injure others when one has power to do so.
2. The act of relieving suffering, or the disposition to relieve it; compassion.
3. A providential blessing. [<OF <L merces, mercedis hire, payment, reward; with ref. to the heavenly reward for compassion] Synonyms: benevolence, benignity, blessing, clemency, compassion, favor, forbearance, forgiveness, gentleness, grace, kindness, lenience, leniency, lenity, mildness, pardon, pity, tenderness. Mercy is the exercise of less severity than one deserves, or in a more extended sense, the granting of kindness or favor beyond what one may rightly claim. Clemency is a colder word than mercy signifying mildness and moderation in the use of power where severity would have legal sanction; it often denotes a habitual mildness of disposition on the part of the powerful, and is a matter rather of good nature or policy than of principle. Leniency or lenity denotes an easy–going avoidance of severity; these words are more general and less magisterial than clemency. Grace is favor, kindness, or blessing shown to the undeserving; forgiveness, mercy, and pardon are exercised toward the ill–deserving. Pardon remits the outward penalty which the offender deserves; forgiveness dismisses resentment or displeasure from the heart of the one offended. Mercy is also used in the wider sense of refraining from harshness or cruelty toward those who are in one's power without fault of their own; as, They besought the robber to have mercy. See LENITY, PITY. Antonyms: cruelty, hardness, harshness, implacability, justice, penalty, punishment, revenge, rigor, severity, sternness, vengeance.