WordWeb Online

1. Leniency and compassion shown toward offenders by a person or agency charged with administering justice
   "he threw himself on the mercy of the court";
   - clemency, mercifulness
    
2. A disposition to be kind and forgiving
   "in those days a wife had to depend on the mercy of her husband";
   - mercifulness
    
3. The feeling that motivates compassion
   - mercifulness
    
4. Something for which to be thankful
   "it was a mercy we got out alive"
    
5. Alleviation of distress; showing great kindness toward the distressed
   "distributing food and clothing to the flood victims was an act of mercy"

Derived forms: mercies

Type of: blessing, boon, compassion, compassionateness, humaneness, lenience, leniency, ministration, relief, succor [US], succour [Brit, Cdn]

Encyclopedia: Mercy, Severity