- 1出於好意的、一片好心（但常常好心辦壞事，語氣是體諒對方的動機）
Well-meaning describes someone whose heart is in the right place but whose help does not land. Like , it comes with an implied "but": the well-meaning neighbour who gives your dog food that makes it sick, the well-meaning advice that makes you feel worse. English speakers reach for it when they want to forgive someone while still saying the thing went wrong — it protects the person's motive and criticises only the outcome. It is used most often about people, and it fits naturally in front of a noun ("well-meaning friends", "a well-meaning teacher"), though "she was well-meaning" is fine too. Compared with , it is the warmer and more everyday of the two; suits policies, laws, and reforms, while well-meaning suits your aunt. It can be used with no criticism at all — "a room full of well-meaning volunteers" — but even then it suggests more goodwill than skill. If you want pure praise, this is not the word.
well-meaning 指出發點是好的，但幫忙的結果不一定好，例如好心的鄰居給狗吃東西，結果狗生病了。它多半用來形容人，放在名詞前面最自然，例如「well-meaning friends」。它帶著體諒對方動機的語氣，只批評結果，不批評人。和 well-intentioned 比，它更溫和、更日常，後者多用在政策或法律上。有時它完全沒有批評的意思，例如「a room full of well-meaning volunteers」，只是隱約暗示好意多過能力。
From the word’s history
Compound of well + meaning.
由 well 和 meaning 合成。
組成well + meaning, from mean in the sense of "to intend" — as in "I didn't mean to hurt you".
同家族的字
- meanthe intend sense of mean, not the unkind sense
- well-meantthe same idea applied to an act rather than a person
- meaningthe same word doing noun duty
原始詞典資料1 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
well-meaningadj
- 1
With good intentions, often used to reflect positively on a negative outcome or situation.
- The professor is well-meaning enough, but he usually ruins things one way or another.
- In the first scene, he bites the arm of a well-meaning counselor at the group home and dashes out of the building, all in a vain attempt to locate the father who abandoned him.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。