grateful

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   feeling or showing gratitude

   a grateful heart

2. 2
   adj

   affording comfort or pleasure

   the grateful warmth of the fire

3. 3
   adj

   Of a person or their actions, feelings, etc.: expressing gratitude or appreciation; appreciative, thankful.

   I’m grateful that you helped me out.

4. 4
   adj

   Of a thing or (obsolete) person: pleasing to the mind or senses; agreeable, pleasant, welcome.

   [T]his is a guift / Very gratefull, I am ſure of it, to expreſſe / The like kindneſſe my ſelfe, that haue beene / More kindely beholding to you then any: […]

Etymology

From grate (“(obsolete) serving to gratify, agreeable, pleasing; grateful, thankful”) + -ful (suffix forming adjectives with the sense of tending to have or thoroughly having a quality). Grate is a learned borrowing from Latin grātus (“agreeable, pleasing; beloved, dear; grateful, thankful”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerH- (“to express approval, praise; to elevate”).