adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a happy home (= a happy family )
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We had a happy home.
a happy outcome (= a good result, especially one that makes everyone happy )
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Adopting a child does not automatically result in a happy outcome.
a happy/cheerful atmosphere
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It's a good school and it has a very happy atmosphere.
a happy/joyful occasion
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The wedding had been a joyful occasion.
a happy/lucky/fortunate coincidence
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It was just a happy coincidence that he was there too.
a happy/unhappy marriage
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Ours was a very happy marriage.
a nice/lovely/happy day (= enjoyable )
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We’ve had a lovely day at the beach.
be willing/prepared/happy/ready to admit sth
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She was willing to admit that she’d made a mistake.
demob happy
Happy Birthday! (= said to someone on their birthday )
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Happy Birthday, Linda!
happy hour
Happy New Year (= used as a greeting )
happy slapping
happy/glad/ready etc to oblige
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If you need a ride home, I’d be happy to oblige.
Happy/Merry Christmas! (= something you say to people at Christmas )
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I just called in to say 'Happy Christmas'.
happy/perfect/surprise etc ending
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a story with a happy ending
happy/sensitive/brave/simple etc soul
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He is really quite a sensitive soul.
happy/smiling
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Shelley looked at the children’s happy faces.
happy/unhappy memories
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Many people have unhappy memories of being forced to play team sports.
happy/unhappy
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Her parents divorced and her childhood was unhappy.
have a happy/unhappy etc childhood
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I wish I'd had a happy childhood like yours.
have a long/happy etc marriage
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They have a happy marriage.
look tired/happy/sad etc
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You look tired. You should go to bed.
the happy couple (= the bride and bridegroom at their wedding )
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Guests stood around the happy couple, their glasses raised.
wish sb a happy Christmas (= say that you hope someone enjoys Christmas )
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They wished us a happy Christmas and left.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
as
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Make Mrs. Jervis, my dear son, as happy as you can.
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He wanted them to be as happy together as they were right now.
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A barren cat, she reminded herself quickly, is just as happy .
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He is as happy today as the folks who pay him.
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They moved to a house in the same quiet village, and were just as happy .
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Montana, 41, seemed as happy as the children to be playing in the zoo.
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Ken wasn't as happy with this one as he had been with its predecessor.
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After Ian won, I was probably as happy as he was.
how
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Everyone had said how happy and beautiful and brave and in love they were, and it had been true.
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I heard again how happy everyone was that I was able to come for the year.
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I went along to some services and again I saw how happy people were.
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Guys, do you know how happy I am at this moment?
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She wanted to prove to Madame Gloriana that she had been wrong - to let her see how happy she was.
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Others will see how happy we are and envy us, as they already have.
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She remembered how different, how happy he had been when he returned after midnight.
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If people knew how happy it can make you, we would all be writing all the time.
just
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The Glenman was right in saying that the days are gone when players are just happy pulling on the Glentoran shirt.
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For myself, I was happy . Just happy.
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The island was my home now, not my prison, and I was just happy to be alive.
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A guy like Gonzalez is just happy to have a uniform.
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While Halliday takes on a new role, David Irwin is just happy to return to the scene.
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I was just happy to survive.
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It seems to me, gone are the days when Glentoran and Linfield players are just happy with pulling on the shirt.
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As a result, he got good information, not just happy talk.
much
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When Anna left Inspector Aziz, she was much happier .
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But they were much happier after they found the brass pot.
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The human eye and brain are much happier reading short to medium length unjustified lines although books are conventionally justified.
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He knew Blanche would be much happier with the file photo the same newspaper had used of her.
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She would feel so much happier if they had and it was over.
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Others are much happier to have their judgements explored and can check their claims.
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I was feeling much happier than I had for two years.
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Session three Two weeks later Liz had moved in with her brother and sister-in-law and seemed much happier in herself.
perfectly
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At the moment she was perfectly happy .
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The hospitals are the ones that introduced this legislation, and they are perfectly happy with the review process.
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She had been perfectly happy at Group.
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I told myself he was no sick cat, but I could see that he was not perfectly happy .
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Those perfectly happy in their affections never read novels, because real love is so much more fascinating than that described.
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He looks perfectly happy , his past and future far away on this festive afternoon.
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Bruno felt perfectly happy in that bed; he seemed to forget all his worries.
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Dana had seemed perfectly happy in Solihull with Roman dancing attention on her every night.
quite
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The Norderns looked at Marx who stood before them as if he was quite happy to stand there in silence all day.
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Although crowds mean money, the rulers of cricket have never been quite happy about them.
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Whilst the computer is quite happy dealing with angles expressed in radians, you may prefer to express angles in degrees.
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She would have been quite happy to have fatherless children.
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I would have been quite happy if he had gone on for longer.
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Nevertheless, I was quite happy .
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He grumbled all the time, but was really quite happy because he did not allow himself to worry.
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He'd been quite happy , relieved even, to hand her over to Mr Taylor's care.
really
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And after 23 years, they are still married, still really happy .
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Everyone figures that Keiko is really happy about all this.
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Although the village people had almost forgotten her trouble, she decided she could never be really happy in Marlott.
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She finally got back and the tree was really happy that she was back.
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I am only really happy when working in front of my subject or from careful drawings made in front of the subject.
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They're only really happy when they're coming down on people.
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I should have been really happy , but instead I felt a depression come over me.
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I remember feeling really happy when I was told I had at least six or seven years to live.
so
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I went swimming, and I was so happy I cried into the sea for three-quarters of an hour.
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I was so happy for her.
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Mungo reflected that he had never seen Emily so happy .
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He had been so happy before.
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They've been married for 11 years and they've always been so happy .
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So why is homemaker Toshio Someya so happy ?
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I am so happy to make your acquaintance.
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I was so happy that I told a friend from home, and he told every-one.
too
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There must be dozens of women who'd be only too happy to marry him.
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Then there are those of us who are only too happy Louisiana enacted the law.
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After the ban years, she had been only too happy to take the money her sons thrust on her.
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But she was too happy to be teased.
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They will be only too happy to oblige.
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And no one at the university is too happy about it now.
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Bobby was too happy to be bothered.
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These people are too happy , too success-ful, too clean, too orderly.
very
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Those that did write back stated that they were very happy with their present designs.
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Hercules became very happy and very drunk and very noisy.
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Fifteen minutes later, one very tired arm and one very happy angler.
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They could be very happy , it's a quiet street; it is a paradise.
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His wife was very happy and vowed to raise the girl properly.
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Dressed in a smart, grey suit and black tie, the former Beatle looked very happy .
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He and Dickie were very happy together, and that was that.
■ NOUN
birthday
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I always regarded that as my Birthday present, of course my happy birthday only lasted about anther hour.
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But the man himself was still standing, swinging happy birthday to himself.
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And, happy birthday Mr Boulting.
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So happy birthday to the lion as winter nears.
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She says she can't give him cards or wish him happy birthday and it's sad.
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And have a very very happy birthday , birthday bear.
couple
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As the happy couple took their places there was a stir and a rising babble behind them.
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The happy couple warring in public, being at odds over what really was the truth.
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They walk, like a happy couple .
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Now the happy couple plan a new ceremony to bless their marriage.
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Friends and relatives are expected to give paper money to the happy couple after traditional ceremonies, writes Gurbir Dhillon.
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In Anne and Tim, she will be longing for at least one happy couple within the Royal Family.
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The dancing had stopped momentarily, and a space had been cleared round the happy couple .
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Loss of libido happens to a great many basically happy couples .
days
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I can not say that they were happy days , but they taught me what life is about.
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For a moment her eyes blurred at the memories of happy days , days of innocence.
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They have little idea how macabre this is, and you must forgive them wishing you many more happy days together.
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Just memories ... recollections of happier days .
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These were happy days for Stewart.
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Plus, happy days are here again.
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The recession appears to be ending, and those happy days of decades past could soon be here again.
ending
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Thankfully, the story had a happy ending .
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These beautiful new books, filled with morals and happy endings , help us hold on to our storytelling heritage.
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But it wasn't a happy ending .
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The pursuit of miracles, the rapture of happy endings .
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The happy ending came last week.
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We all have this thing about happy endings .
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Neighbours projects being honest and everything has a happy ending .
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There were happy endings all around.
family
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In explicating this model, managers tend to emphasise the goodness of relationships such as one would find in a happy family .
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There are innumerable girls from Shishu Bhawans who are now well settled, with happy families of their own.
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No one's saying estranged couples have to play happy families .
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A happy family sat at a gleaming table admiring the huge turkey as a friendly waiter hovered overhead.
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The advertisements show healthy, happy families .
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The first is a journey toward some external goal: influence and powers a happy family , salvation, or self-actualization.
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No, its not all happy families and new cars, its hard, competitive, demanding.
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We were a happy family there.
hour
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Accompanied by our daughter, I spent many happy hours helping there.
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On Friday, happy hour starts at 3 p. m. and continues until closing.
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Peter O'Toole's happiest hour as the Soho scribe looking back on a mis-spent life.
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During happy hour , extended on Monday until the end of the game, microbrews are $ 2.
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The cover of this machine provided many happy hours for me when tiny.
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The happy hour food menu includes hot wings, chicken quesadillas, onion rings and crab cakes, among others.
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All in all, it promises to be a huge weekend with a happy hour and disco etal.
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There's also a new happy hour at Cicada, albeit a very sophisticated one.
life
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We are now reaching the high point of the truly happy life .
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He renounces all possibility of a happy life in favor of a solitary one dedicated to work.
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Without some element of suffering in our lives , it is difficult to distinguish a pleasurable life from a happy life.
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It was a happy life , full of activity and challenge.
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They came here to settle down and have a happy life .
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For a happy life I can only imagine.
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You can expect a long and happy life if you give up serious music.
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With a little effort, you and your vine should enjoy a long, happy life together.
man
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He was a happy man , in love with his wife and deeply content.
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He is a chubby, happy man .
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He was left a happier man , while Maureen was even more pleased!
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He was a happy man all his life.
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In his last years John Shakespeare was a happy man .
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One of the happiest men in the Cleveland clubhouse was Bip Roberts.
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A small, happy man with a white beard, he always wore the traditional grocers' apron.
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The President was not a happy man these days.
marriage
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We think of all the things we wanted for Danny - a job, a happy marriage , children.
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After the two Penns parted company, the son found solace in a happy marriage to GuliGulielma Maria Springett.
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But, although she had progressed from happy childhood to happy marriage , all the while a conflict was raging within her.
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She simply wanted a happy marriage .
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His first wife christened Emily, affectionately and universally known as Pem died on Christmas Day 1988 after 53 years happy marriage .
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Even the happiest marriage , in the most fully lived immigrant life, can not entirely make up for that.
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Perfect looks, a happy marriage , a successful career.
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Their happy marriage , their seeming perfection, was porcelain: they daren't raise their voices for fear of shattering it.
memory
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Their fortunes will become more divided than before: some are waking up from the party with happier memories than others.
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There are happy memories and there are sad, all floating in our minds together.
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I should have kept my happy memories .
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I have many happy memories of a time when the world was innocent as were most of us.
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Now she could fabricate for herself rich and happy memories .
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Some of my happiest memories date from the time when Father was alive.
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The refugees who arrived starving and thirsty in 1948 do not have happy memories of their reception.
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Other foster children with happy memories did the same, though distance and new relationships combined to make contact sporadic.
times
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She felt a coldness inside her and did her best to remember the happy times of her childhood.
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Although these were happy times for me and we seemed to feed regularly, life was rather hard.
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John's face seemed to come alive and his spirit escaped the prison of the photograph releasing brief images of happy times .
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Family was the company, in happy times and in squabbling disarray.
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His old one was stolen by the Czech secret police in less happy times .
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The phone call sped my heart to happier times in Seoul seven years earlier.
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Was this celebration, six years after the Liberation, a reminder of less happy times ?
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The weekends with the cadre of sociable women must have been the happy times .
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a happy/good hunting ground (for sth)
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I pass up a roadside rest area, a happy hunting ground for new cars and ready cash.
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In the early years of this century, many a collector found Madeira a happy hunting ground.
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Scandinavia was a happy hunting ground for him and he did the same for Nicolai Gedda.
as happy as a clam
happy camper
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Loville is not a happy camper .
more than happy/welcome/likely etc
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And as to the finish, well, they'd be more than happy for you to check the results for yourself.
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For the most part, gallery staffers are more than happy to answer questions and discuss artists.
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If the leader is open, receptive, and responsive to you, the others will more than likely follow suit.
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If this is not possible, then most printers are more than happy to visit enquirers.
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The accident, as it turns out, was a broken mirror and more than likely a shortage of time.
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The Cap'n had been to Jarman House once ... would be coming again more than likely.
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They spend the time getting space for some new person who more than likely will leave.
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We trooped along and he more than likely brought his mate John Grey along with him.
not very good/happy/far etc
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Are you - very happy, fairly happy, not very happy, or not happy at all?
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Governments are not very good at tinkering.
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He says his technique is not very good.
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Most humans are not very good at keeping secrets.
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My breathing was not very good at all.
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Other kids were not very good either, and we all inadvertently inhaled the pool again and again.
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Paul is not very good at pushing it yet.
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Relations with Admiral Boyd of the Joint Chiefs were not very good either.
play happy families
strike a happy/cheerful/cautious etc note
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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a happy baby
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Doctors said they were happy with how the operation had gone.
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Everyone thought their marriage was happy .
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For the first five years of their marriage they were very happy .
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Grandma is so happy that everyone will be there for Christmas.
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He had a very happy childhood.
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I'd gotten a lot done over the weekend and was happy about that.
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I'm just happy to be home again.
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I'm so happy for you - I know how much you wanted the job.
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I could hear the happy sound of the street musicians.
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I was very happy to be back home.
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Is she happy about being pregnant?
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Mike was a happy child and never gave us any trouble at all.
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Most children's stories have happy endings.
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Most fairy tales have a happy ending.
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My years at college were the happiest time of my life.
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Pinker stated that he was perfectly happy with the arrangement.
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Sarah's main aim in life is simply to be happy .
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She seems a lot happier now that she's got a new job.
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The children's happy faces were reward enough.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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He gave little appearance of being unusually happy .
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I wasn't very happy about that so I finished with him.
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In fact, my childhood on Lewis can be described as a happy one.
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Maggie suddenly shuddered, and twisted away, her happy expression replaced by one of painful memories.
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The Grange has always been a happy house and still has a faint atmosphere of piety, fully intended by Mr Teulon.
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With a politics of opinion, I am happy enough.
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You know happiness is being able to assume you are happy .