merry

comparative merrier · superlative merriest · alternative obsolete merie · alternative obsolete merrie · alternative obsolete mery

1. Jolly and full of high spirits; happy.

   We had a very merry Christmas.

   2 more examples

   I am neuer merry when I heare ſweet muſique.

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]

   I felt comforted by the song of the redbreast, and I thought I felt less lonely and deserted as long as I heard the merry notes of the thrush.

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 281

   Synonyms: cheerful, content, ecstatic, exultant, gay, happy, jovial, joyful · Antonyms: miserable, unhappy

2. Festive and full of fun and laughter.

   Everyone was merry at the party.

   1 more example

   If I have the chance, I will make our worshipful Sheriff pay right well for that which he hath done to me. Maybe I may bring him some time into Sherwood Forest and have him to a right merry feast with us.

   1883, Howard Pyle, chapter V, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: convivial, gay, jovial

3. Brisk.

   The car moved at a merry clip.

   1 more example

   The play moved along at a merry pace.

   Synonyms: energetic, lively, spirited, abuzz, active, agile, airy, alive

4. Causing laughter, mirth, gladness, or delight.

   a merry jest

   1 more example

   There eke my feeble barke a while may ſtay, / Till mery wynd and weather call her thence away.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 171

   Synonyms: delightful, gladful

5. euphemisticDrunk; tipsy.

   Some of us got a little merry at the office Christmas party.

   Synonyms: lushy, muzzy, squiffy, Adrian Quist, adrip, aled up, all mops and brooms, arseholed

plural merries

1. An English wild cherry.

1. A surname transferred from the nickname. Originally a nickname for a merry person.
2. A female given name from merry.
3. A diminutive of the female given name Mercy.

   'Is he handsome, Pa?' inquired the younger daughter. 'Silly Merry!' said the eldest: Merry being fond for Mercy. 'What is the premium, Pa? tell us that.'

   1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, chapter 2, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC

   1 more example

   It was on account of she had such a happy temperament I persuaded Mr. van der Most to let me call her Merry. Lots of folks, when they first meet her, they think she's called Mary - Maria, as you would say it, Signor Lumaca - but no, her name is really Merry, M-E-double-R-Y, because, I always tell them, she is.

   1964 Brigid Brophy, The Waste Disposal Unit, Best Short Plays of the World Theatre 1958-1967, page 50

4. A diminutive of the male given name Meredith.