INGEN'UOUS, adjective [Latin ingenuus.] Open; frank; fair; candid; free from reserve, disguise, equivocation or dissimulation; used of persons or things. We speak of an ingenuous mind; an ingenuous man; an ingenuous declaration or confession.

1. Noble; generous; as an ingenuous ardor or zeal; ingenuous detestation of falsehood.

2. Of honorable extraction; freeborn; as ingenuous blood or birth.