gaiety
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gai·e·ty
also gay·e·ty (gā′ĭ-tē)n. pl. gai·e·ties also gay·e·ties
1. A state of joyful exuberance or merriment; vivacity.
2. Merry or joyful activity; festivity: making preparations for the holiday gaieties.
3. Bright color or showiness, as of dress; finery.
[French gaieté, from Old French, from gai, cheerful; see gay.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
gaiety
(ˈɡeɪətɪ)n, pl -ties
Also (esp US): gayety 1. the state or condition of being merry, bright, or lively
2. festivity; merrymaking
Usage: See at gay
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
gai•e•ty
(ˈgeɪ ɪ ti)n., pl. -ties.
1. the quality or state of being gay or cheerful; merriment.
2. Often, gaieties. merrymaking or festivity: the gaieties of the New Year season.
3. showiness; finery: gaiety of dress.
Sometimes, gayety. Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
Gaiety
See Also: CHEERFULNESS, LAUGHTER
- As merry as a grig —Frank Swinnerton
- As merry as a mouse in malt —George Garrett
- As merry as forty beggars —Proverb
- As merry as notes in a tune —Dame Edith Sitwell
- As merry as the day is long —William Shakespeare Shakespeare used this in both Much Ado About Nothing and The Life and Death of King John. In daily conversation, ‘cheerful’ is often substituted for ‘merry.’
- Gay as the latest statistics on cancer or crime —Elyse Sommer
- (Yours is) a spirit like a May-day song —Dorothy Parker
- Blithe as the air is, and as free —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Cavorted like a mule let out to pasture —Borden Deal
- Feeling like Fourth of July —Stephen Vincent Benét
- The gaiety of life, like the beauty and the moral worth of life, is a saving grace, which to ignore is folly, and to destroy is a crime —Agnes Repplier
- Gay as a funeral procession —Anon
- As merry as a condemned man eating his last meal —Elyse Sommer
- Gay as a honey-bee humming in June —Amy Lowell
- Gay as a parade —Hilda Conklin
- Gay as larks —Aesop The use of “gay as” and “merry as” comparisons to larks, crickets and just about any kind of humming or buzzing bird or insect abounds throughout the annals of literature as well as in daily speech.
- Heart … lighter than a flower —Elinor Wylie
- Making merry like grasshoppers —Robinson Jeffers
- A man without mirth is like a wagon without springs, in which one is caused disagreeably to jolt by every pebble over which it turns —Henry Ward Beecher Were Beecher alive today he might substitute “A car without shock absorbers” for “A wagon without springs.”
- (Everything went as) merrily as a marriage bell —W. Somerset Maugham
- A merry heart does good like a medicine —The Holy Bible /Proverbs The word ‘doeth’ has been modernized to ‘does,’ and the simile is often shortened to “A merry heart is like medicine.”
- Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a loom of clouds, and glitters for a moment —Joseph Addison
Similes Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1988 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Switch to new thesaurus
Noun | 1. | gaiety - a gay feeling happiness - emotions experienced when in a state of well-being jocularity, jocundity - a feeling facetious merriment |
2. | gaiety - a festive merry feeling levity - feeling an inappropriate lack of seriousness |
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
gaiety
noun
1. cheerfulness, glee, good humour, buoyancy, happiness, animation, exuberance, high spirits, elation, exhilaration, hilarity, merriment, joie de vivre (French), good cheer, vivacity, jollity, liveliness, gladness, effervescence, light-heartedness, joyousness There was a bright, infectious gaiety in the children's laughter.
cheerfulness misery, gloom, sadness, melancholy, despondency
cheerfulness misery, gloom, sadness, melancholy, despondency
2. merrymaking, celebration, revels, festivity, fun, mirth, revelry, conviviality, jollification, carousal The mood was one of laughter and gaiety.
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002
gaiety
noun1. A state of joyful exuberance:
2. Joyful, exuberant activity:
conviviality, festival, festiveness, festivity, fun, jollity, merriment, merrymaking, revel (often used in plural), revelry.
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations
بَهْجَه ، مَرَحمَرَح، جَذَل
jásavostzábava
festfestlighedlystighedmunterhed
vigalom
glaîværî, kátínagleîskapur
gaiety
[ˈgeɪɪtɪ] N1. [of occasion, person] → alegría f
2. [of dress, costumes] → colorido m, vistosidad f
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
gaiety
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995
gay
(gei) adjective1. happy or making people happy. The children were gay and cheerful; gay music.
2. bright. gay colours.
3. homosexual. gay liberation; gay rights.
noun homosexual.
ˈgaily adverbgaiety (ˈgeiəti) noun
1. (an occasion of) fun or happiness. They joined in the gaiety.
2. the state of being gay. the gaiety of the music.
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.