Meanings
- uncountableArchaic American form of good humour.
With a spirit naturally gay, and a disposition to join the circles of consistent good-humor, he could readily have filled these pages with general instruction and amusement.
1852 May, Abel C[harles] Thomas, “Preface”, in Autobiography of Rev. Abel C. Thomas: Including Recollections of Persons, Incidents, and Places, Boston, Mass.: […] J. M. Usher, […], page 42 more examples
The speech of Hist produced a retort, and the dispute, though conducted in good-humor, and without any of the coarse violence of tone and l gesture that often impairs the charms of the sex in what is called civilized life, grew warm and slightly clamorous.
1850 [1841], J[ames] Fenimore Cooper, chapter XVI, in The Deerslayer: or, The First War-Path. A Tale. (The Leather-Stocking Tales; volume I), New York, N.Y.: George P[almer] Putnam, […], page 307What, perhaps, with other things, made Stubb such an easy-going, unfearing man, so cheerily trudging off with the burden of life in a world full of grave peddlers, all bowed to the ground with their packs; what helped to bring about that almost impious good-humor of his; that thing must have been his pipe.
1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Knights and Squires”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 129
Cite this entry
good-humor. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/good-humor
“good-humor.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/good-humor. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “good-humor,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/good-humor.
Source: good-humor on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.