prepossessing
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.62 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
13
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Tending to invite favor; attracting confidence, favor, esteem, or love; attractive
verb
present participle and gerund of prepossess
Example Sentences
- ""I am a great advocate for timidity—and I am sure one does not often meet with it.—But in those who are at all inferior, it is extremely prepossessing.""
- "Our curate is a young gentleman of such prepossessing appearance, and fascinating manners, that within one month after his first appearance in the parish, half the young-lady inhabitants were melancholy with religion, and the other half, desponding with love."
- "These natural graces in the quadroon are often united with beauty of the most dazzling kind, and in almost every case with a personal appearance prepossessing and agreeable."
- "In repose the faces of the men were intelligent and dignified, those of the women ofttimes prepossessing."
- "He was a frank, prepossessing fellow, but I saw that he could add nothing to his original account."
- "The stations are generally very poor, even for a branch line; some are mere wooden shacks, and Moniaive itself is one of the least prepossessing terminal stations I have ever seen."
Etymology
From prepossess + -ing. Attested in 1610s with the meaning of "getting possession of (ground or land) beforehand". The meaning "to possess (a person) beforehand with a feeling, notion, etc." developed in 1630s, acquiring by the 40s of the same century the meaning of "to cause (someone) to have a favorable opinion of something, preoccupy the mind or heart of".
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
more prepossessing (comparative)
most prepossessing (superlative)