HAPPY


Meaning of HAPPY in English

I. ˈhapē, -pi adjective

( usually -er/-est )

Etymology: Middle English, from hap, happe hap + -y — more at hap

1. : favored by luck or fortune : fortunate , prosperous , propitious , favorable

perennially happy dice should be inspected to discover whether they are loaded — J.R.Newman

scientific discoveries … seem to drop out of the blue, the gift of happy chance — Lamp

they experiment in color … with results sometimes happy , sometimes disastrous — Roger Fry

2. : notably well adapted or fitting : markedly effective : apt , felicitous , appropriate , just

he will seek to establish by law the happy mean — G.L.Dickinson

the happy diction, and the graceful phrase — E.G.Bulwer-Lytton

the passage in the finale was particularly happy — Virgil Thomson

television is an especially happy medium — Irving Kolodin

the attendants had a happy thought — Jeremiah Dowling

3.

a. : having the feeling arising from the consciousness of well-being

would forbid any novelist to represent a good man as ever miserable or a wicked man as ever happy — Havelock Ellis

b. : characterized or attended by happiness : expressing, reflecting, or suggestive of happiness : not tragic : pleasant , joyous

the happy years of childhood

a happy family life

a book with a happy ending

it had been a merciful passing, even a happy one — S.H.Adams

the happy noises of prolonged mastication — C.H.Rickword

paints a happy picture of rural life

past happy brooks flashing to the sun — G.D.Brown

c. : glad , pleased

I am happy to meet you

I would be happy for the president to declare his policy — Time

d. : having or marked by an atmosphere of good fellowship or camaraderie : harmonious , congenial , friendly

sailormen prefer a happy to a taut ship, where strict discipline is the only diet — A.R.Griffin

I know that they will find … a happy welcome on the Canadian shore — F.D.Roosevelt

its happy industrial relations and the loyal spirit of its workers — Sam Pollock

4. obsolete : blessed

5. : having a feeling of well-being as a result of drink

came home a bit happy

6.

a. : characterized by a dazed irresponsible state — used as a terminal element in combination with the cause of the condition indicated

a punch- happy prizefighter

the gold- happy miners decided to have a horse race — J.A.Michener

b. : impulsively, nervously, or obsessively quick to use something — used as a terminal element in combinations with the object indicated

they'll be gun- happy and … let go at anything that moves — William Wright

trigger- happy soldiers

c. : enthusiastic to the point of obsession : obsessed — used as a terminal element in combinations with the object of the feeling indicated

I know your type … publicity- happy — Ellery Queen

that guy is stripe- happy — Norman Mailer

sailor- happy girls who move around after the fleet — Katharine T. Kinkead

Synonyms: see fit , glad , lucky

II. transitive verb

( -ed/-ing/-es )

now dialect : to make happy

it don't happy me up any — Howard Troyer

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.