GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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1.       
   Ingenuous , a. [L. ingenuus inborn, innate, freeborn, noble, frank; pref. in- in + the root of gignere to beget. See Genius, and cf. Ingenious.]
   Of honorable extraction; freeborn; noble; as, ingenuous blood of birth.
   1913 Webster
   Noble; generous; magnanimous; honorable; upright; high-minded; as, an ingenuous ardor or zeal.
   1913 Webster
   If an ingenuous detestation of falsehood be but carefully and early instilled, that is the true and genuine method to obviate dishonesty.
   Locke.
   
   1913 Webster
   Free from reserve, disguise, equivocation, or dissimulation; open; frank; as, an ingenuous man; an ingenuous declaration, confession, etc.
   1913 Webster
   Sensible in myself . . . what a burden it is for me, who would be ingenuous, to be loaded with courtesies which he hath not the least hope to requite or deserve.
   Fuller.
   
   1913 Webster
   Ingenious. [Obs.]
   Shak.
   
   1913 Webster
   ☞ (Formerly) printers did not discriminate between . . . ingenuous and ingenious, and these words were used or rather printed interchangeably almost to the beginning of the eighteenth century.
   G. P. Marsh.
   Syn. -- Open; frank; unreserved; artless; plain; sincere; candid; fair; noble; generous.  -- Ingenuous, Open, Frank. One who is open speaks out at once what is uppermost in his mind; one who is frank does it from a natural boldness, or dislike of self-restraint; one who is ingenuous is actuated by a native simplicity and artlessness, which make him willing to confess faults, and make known his sentiments without reserve. See Candid.
   1913 Webster