happy
/ˈhæpi/ adjective, noun, verb, proper noun
Forms happier happiest happies happying happied Happys happie
- adjective Having a feeling arising from a consciousness of well-being or of enjoyment; enjoying good of any kind, such as comfort, peace, or tranquillity; blissful, contented, joyous. “Music makes me feel happy.”
- adjective (of people) Experiencing the effect of favourable fortune; favored by fortune or luck; fortunate, lucky.
- adjective (archaic) Elect or saved after death, blessed.
- adjective Content, willing, satisfied (with or to do something); having no objection (to something). “Are you happy to pay me back by the end of the week?”
- adjective (of acts, events, speech, etc.) Bringing or being an instance of favourable fortune; apt, felicitous, fortunate, propitious. “happy coincidence”
- adjective (in combination) Favoring or inclined to use. “slaphappy, trigger-happy”
- adjective (rare, of people, often followed by "at" or "in") Dexterous, ready, skilful.
- adjective Implying “May you have a happy ⁓” or similar; used in phrases to wish someone happiness or good fortune at the time of a festival, celebration, or other event or activity. “Happy birthday!”
- noun (informal, rare) A happy event, thing, person, etc.
- verb (intransitive, informal) Often followed by up: to become happy; to brighten up, to cheer up.
- verb (transitive, informal) Often followed by up: to make happy; to brighten, to cheer, to enliven.
- proper noun A male given name.
- proper noun A surname transferred from the nickname.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in White County, Arkansas.
- proper noun A township in Graham County, Kansas.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in Perry County, Kentucky.
- proper noun A town in Randall County and Swisher County, Texas.
Synonyms
cheerful content delighted elated exultant glad joyful jubilant merry fortunate lucky charmed fortuitous freak providential serendipitous sonsy pleased berserk blissed out felicitous well-chosen
Antonyms
blue depressed down miserable moody morose sad unhappy atrabiliary atrabilious blitheless dispirited
Etymology
From Middle English happy (“fortunate, happy”), perhaps an alteration of Middle English happyn, happen (“fortunate, happy”), possibly related to or from Old Norse heppinn (“fortunate, happy”); and potentially assimilated to be equivalent to hap (“chance, luck, fortune”) + -y. Compare also Icelandic heppinn (“lucky”), Faroese heppin (“fortunate, lucky, happy”), Norwegian Nynorsk heppen (“lucky”), Scots happin (“fortunate, blessed”). See further at hap.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Favored by hap, luck, or fortune; lucky; fortunate; successful; prosperous; satisfying desire; as, a happy expedient; a happy effort; a happy venture; a happy omen.
- adjective Experiencing the effect of favorable fortune; having the feeling arising from the consciousness of well-being or of enjoyment; enjoying good of any kind, as peace, tranquillity, comfort; contented; joyous; as, happy hours, happy thoughts.
Etymology [From Hap chance.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “happy”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details