Meanings
- archaicuncountableArchaic form of good humour.
It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour.
1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Three. The Second of the Three Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, pages 105–1062 more examples
Sotherton was a word to catch Mrs. Norris, and being just then in the happy leisure which followed securing the odd trick by Sir Thomas’s capital play and her own, against Dr. and Mrs. Grant’s great hands, she called out in high good-humour, “Sotherton! “Yes, that is a place indeed, and we had a charming day there.[…]”
1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter VII, in Mansfield Park: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, pages 153–154We were almost always under fire from the enemy; but with the utmost cheerfulness, and even, I may say, good-humour, the whole of the infantry did all in their power to lighten the work of the overtasked artillerymen: comrades we were, all striving for the accomplishment of one purpose—that of bringing swift and sure destruction on the rebels who had for so long a period successfully resisted our arms.
1910, Charles John Griffiths, “Capture of the City”, in Henry John Yonge, editor, A Narrative of the Siege of Delhi with an Account of the Mutiny at Ferozepore in 1857, London: John Murray, […], pages 148–149
Cite this entry
good-humour. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/good-humour
“good-humour.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/good-humour. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “good-humour,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/good-humour.
Source: good-humour on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.