cheerful
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈt͡ʃɪəfl̩/
ipa: /ˈt͡ʃɪɹfl̩/
ipa: /ˈt͡ʃɜː(ɹ)fəl/
ipa: /ˈt͡ʃɜː(ɹ)fʊl/
rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)fʊl
rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)fəl
Forms: form: more cheerful
form: cheerfuler
form: cheerfuller
form: most cheerful
form: cheerfulest
form: cheerfullest
form: cheerfull
form: chearful
Etymology: From Middle English chereful, cherful, equivalent to cheer + -ful.
Senses: examples: text: Ever in cheerfullest mood art thou, when others are filled with
Gloomy forebodings of illl, and see only ruin before them.
ref: 1847 November 1, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, chapter II, in Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie, Boston, Mass.: William D. Ticknor & Company, →OCLC, part I, page 32:
text: He moped, she felt, as the time went by, and he was cheerfuler only when some letter, full of hope without expectation, came from Dick.
ref: 1913, W[illiam] D[ean] Howells, chapter XXIII, in New Leaf Mills: A Chronicle, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC, page 150:
text: The Eskimo is a nobler, cheerfuller and easy-goinger person than we smug civilized citizens have always imagined. Rockwell Kent, the noted Eskimophile, claims they are a polite and happy race.
ref: 1935 July 2, W. E. Farbstein, “Marginal Notes”, in Washington Herald, volume XIII, number 219, Washington, D.C.: American Newspapers, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 15, column 7:
synonyms: word: cheery
word: bright
word: bubbly
word: cheerly
word: ebullient
word: happy
word: joyful
word: merry
word: optimistic
word: vivacious
word: berserk
word: blissed out
word: blithe
word: buoyant
word: blithesome
word: bonnie
word: bright
word: cheerful
word: cheerly
word: cheery
word: chuffed
word: cock-a-hoop
word: content
word: contented
word: convivial
word: delighted
word: ebullient
word: ecstatic
word: elated
word: euphoric
word: excited
word: exhilarated
word: exuberant
word: exultant
word: fat and happy
word: gassed
word: gay
word: gayful
word: glad
word: gladsome
word: gleeful
word: gleesome
word: happy
word: hearty
word: high on life
word: jovial
word: joyful
word: merry
word: merry as a cricket
word: merry as a grig
word: mirthsome
word: on cloud nine
word: overjoyed
word: overjoyous
word: over the moon
word: pacific
word: perky
word: placated
word: pleased
word: satisfied
word: thrilled
word: tickled pink
word: triumphant
word: vivacious
word: wealful
word: happy as a clam
word: happy as a clam at high water
word: happy as a lark
word: happy as a pig in mud
word: happy as a pig in shit
word: happy as a prince
word: happy as Larry
word: happy as the day is long
antonyms: depressed
gloomy
miserable
sad
glosses: Noticeably happy and optimistic.
examples: text: They enjoyed a cheerful room.
text: At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors.[…]In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.
ref: 1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
glosses: Bright and pleasant.
Derived terms: cheap and cheerful
cheerfulize
cheerfully
cheerfulness
cheerfulsome
overcheerful
uncheerful