Definition of "noble" []

• Possessing hereditary rank in a political system or social class derived from a feudalistic stage of a country's development. (adjective)
• Having or showing qualities of high moral character, such as courage, generosity, or honor: a noble spirit. (adjective)
• Proceeding from or indicative of such a character; showing magnanimity: "What poor an instrument/May do a noble deed!” ( Shakespeare). (adjective)
• Grand and stately in appearance; majestic: "a mighty Spanish chestnut, bare now of leaves, but in summer a noble tree” ( Richard Jeffries). (adjective)
• Chemistry Inactive or inert. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "During the time I was with them I could not see anything noble in them, unless it was that they were _noble_ murderers, _noble_ cowards, _noble_ thieves."
• "Frenchman brought with him a Latin grammar, written in his own language, with which my friend was quite pleased, until she came to a passage relating to the masculine gender in nouns, and claiming grammatical precedence for it on the ground that the male sex is the noble sex, -- "_le sexe noble_.""
• "I am the fine lady, Helena -- I was the cause of his being cheated -- I was intent upon _the noble end_ of outshining a certain Mrs. Luttridge -- the _noble means_ I left to others, and the means have proved worthy of the end."