boon
Part of speech: noun
adj
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Middle English boon (“prayer”), from Old Norse bón (“prayer, petition”), from Proto-Germanic *bōniz (“supplication”), influenced by boon (“good, favorable”, adjective). Doublet of ben; see there for more.
Inflected forms:
form: boons
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: booner
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: boonest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: A good thing; a thing to be thankful for or to appreciate duly.
pos: noun
examples: Near-synonyms: gift; blessing, benefit; see also Thesaurus:gift
Finding the dry cave was a boon to the weary travellers.
Anaesthetics are a great boon to modern surgery.
Diggle Station lies high up in the Pennine Chain, subject to extreme low temperatures. With this and heavy snowfall in the winter months, Diggle bids fair to compete with the Scottish lines under similar weather conditions, and the provision of unfrozen water in the higher ambient temperature of the tunnel must be a boon to harassed engine drivers whose thirsty steeds run short of water up the gruelling 1 in 125 seven-mile climb from Stalybridge.
Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus. […] A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that. Developed as a tool to electronically combine the sharpest bits of multiple digital images, focus stacking is a boon to biologists seeking full focus on a micron scale.
Supporters of the measure, which Parliament is expected to vote on next Monday, present it as a boon for democracy: a modest limit on the ways in which an elected government can be stymied by unelected judges, who will in any case still have other tools to overrule ministers.
President Joe Biden has declared - approvingly - that a “long war” is ahead between Israel and Hamas. Washington seems to relish long wars, which always prove a boon to its arms industries and a distraction from domestic troubles.
gloss: That which is asked or granted as a benefit or favor; a gift or benefaction.
pos: noun
examples: I gave you life. Can you not return the boon by giving me death, my lord?
Every good gift and every perfect boon is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning.
[T]he hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man[.]
gloss: A prayer; petition.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: The wofull husbandman doth lowd complaine, / To ſee his whole yeares labor loſt ſo ſoone, / For which to God he made ſo many an idle boone.
gloss: An unpaid service due by a tenant to his lord.
pos: noun
tags: UK
dialectal
gloss: A blessing, typically a supernatural power, granted to an ascetic by a god or goddess.
pos: noun
tags: Hinduism
examples: A telling story is that of Vikra, who, after practicing severe tapas for many years, called on Śiva, asking him to grant the boon that whosoever's head he would touch, that person would die instantly.
gloss: Gay; merry; jovial; convivial.
pos: adj
examples: Greedily ſhe ingorg’d without restraint, / And knew not eating Death: Satiate at length, / And hight’nd as with Wine, jocond and boon, / Thus to herſelf ſhe pleaſingly began.
I knovv the Infirmity of our Family; vve are apt to play the Boon-Companion, and throvv avvay our Money in our Cups: […]
I’m a lonely old man; I lead a life that I don’t like, among boon companions, who make me melancholy.
―No, Mr Bloom repeated again, I wouldn’t personally repose much trust in that boon companion of yours who contributes the humorous element, Dr Mulligan, as a guide, philosopher, and friend, if I were in your shoes.
[T]he boon twins Art and Con aged thirty-seven years […]
(2) "Everybody's boon companion, / Everybody's chaperon"; (3) "Everybody's boon companion: / Give[s] 'em everything he's got"
gloss: Kind; bountiful; benign.
pos: adj
tags: archaic
examples: With mazie error under pendant ſhades / Ran Nectar, viſiting each plant, and fed /Flours worthy of Paradiſe which not nice Art / In Beds and curious Knots, but Nature boon / Powrd forth profuſe on Hill and Dale and Plaine, / […]
gloss: Good; prosperous.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: boon voyage
Related words: bounty
Derived words: boon and bane
boonless
boon or bane
ace boon coon
boon companion
Translations: