kindly

1 having or marked by sympathy and consideration for others brought homemade chicken soup out of kindly concern for my health Synonyms beneficent, benevolent, benignant, compassionate, good-hearted, kind, kindhearted, humane, softhearted, sympathetic, tender, tenderhearted, warmheartedRelated Words attentive, considerate, solicitous, thoughtful; affable, amicable, benign, companionable, comradely, cordial, friendly, genial, gentle, good, good-natured, good-tempered, gracious, mild, neighborly, nice, pleasant, sweet, warm; clement, forbearing, forgiving, lenient, merciful, soft; patient, pitying, tolerant, understanding; altruistic, brotherly, charitable, freehanded, generous, greathearted, humanitarian, liberal, magnanimous, munificent, noble, openhearted, philanthropic (also philanthropical), selfless, unselfish, unsparing; anticruelty, cruelty-freeNear Antonyms ironhearted, merciless, pitiless, ruthless, stonyhearted; inconsiderate, insensitive, thoughtless, uncaring, unthinking; grim, hard-boiled, harsh, heavy-handed, severe, stern, tough, unsentimental; hateful, malevolent, malicious, malign, malignant, mean, nasty, spiteful, virulent; antihumanitarian, uncharitableAntonyms atrocious, barbaric, barbarous, bestial, brutal, brute, brutish, callous, cold-blooded, cruel, fiendish, hard-hearted, heartless, inhuman, inhumane, insensate, sadistic, savage, truculent, uncompassionate, unfeeling, unkind, unkindly, unsympathetic, vicious, wanton

2 promoting or contributing to personal or social well-being a vegetarian diet can be very kindly to a person hoping to lose a few pounds Synonyms advantageous, benefic, beneficent, benignant, favorable, friendly, good, helpful, beneficial, profitable, salutaryRelated Words gratifying, rewarding, satisfying; auspicious, promising, propitious; advisable, desirable, healthful, healthy, salubrious, salutiferous, wholesome; gainful, lucrative, remunerative; ameliorative, amelioratory, bettering, constructive, supportiveNear Antonyms damaging, deleterious, harmful, injurious, insalubriousAntonyms bad, disadvantageous, unfavorable, unfriendly, unhelpful, unprofitable

1 with good reason or courtesy would you kindly hand me the scissors? Synonyms considerately, courteously, graciously, well, nicely, reasonably, thoughtfullyRelated Words pleasantly; excusably, fairly, justifiably, validly; discreetly, judiciously, prudently, sensibly, wisely; chivalrously, decorously, deferentially, gallantly, politely, respectfully, solicitously; compassionately, humanely, kindheartedly, sweetly, sympatheticallyNear Antonyms contemptuously, disdainfully, disrespectfully, impolitely, rudely, scornfully, snootily; cruelly, heartlessly, nastily, viciously; shabbily, unfairlyAntonyms discourteously, inconsiderately, thoughtlessly

2 chiefly Southern  to some degree or extent their visit was kindly a surprise Synonyms enough, fairly [chiefly Southern], kind of, like, moderately, more or less, pretty, quite, rather, relatively, something, somewhat, sort ofRelated Words acceptably, decently, passably, tolerably; little, negligibly, nominally, slightly, vaguely; half, halfway, incompletely, part, partially, partly, partwayNear Antonyms awfully, beastly, deadly, especially, exceedingly (also exceeding), exceptionally, extremely, frightfully, greatly, heavily, highly, hugely, mightily, mortally, particularly, surpassingly, terribly, very; considerably, extensively, significantly, substantially