JOY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Joy

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/dʒɔɪ/ Listen

noun

Joy n.

The passion or emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good; pleasurable feelings or emotions caused by success, good fortune, and the like, or by a rational prospect of possessing what we love or desire; gladness; exhilaration of spirits; delight. "Her heavenly form beheld, all wished her joy." "Glides the smooth current of domestic joy." "Who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame." "Tears of true joy for his return." "Joy is a delight of the mind, from the consideration of the present or assured approaching possession of a good."

That which causes joy or happiness. "For ye are our glory and joy." "A thing of beauty is a joy forever."

The sign or exhibition of joy; gayety; mirth; merriment; festivity. "Such joy made Una, when her knight she found." "The roofs with joy resound." Note: Joy is used in composition, esp. with participles, to from many self-explaining compounds; as, joy-bells, joy-bringing, joy-inspiring, joy-resounding, etc.

Synonyms: Gladness; pleasure; delight; happiness; exultation; transport; felicity; ecstasy; rapture; bliss; gayety; mirth; merriment; festivity; hilarity.

verb

Joy v. t.

To give joy to; to congratulate. (Obs.) "Joy us of our conquest." "To joy the friend, or grapple with the foe."

To gladden; to make joyful; to exhilarate. (Obs.) "Neither pleasure's art can joy my spirits."

To enjoy. (Obs.) See Enjoy. "Who might have lived and joyed immortal bliss."

Joy v. i. (past & past part. joyed; pres. part. joying) To rejoice; to be glad; to delight; to exult. "I will joy in the God of my salvation." "In whose sight all things joy."

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Etymology of 'Joy'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Joy" Quotes from Famous Books

... III.; 65, for his age; 20, for his birthday, it falling on the twentieth of the month; 90, as the highest number in the lottery, hence interpreted to signify "emperor;" and finally 52, the year of his accession to the throne. To the joy of all the old lottery-gossips, the luck fell on these numbers, 3, 20, and 90. At Rome the death of Napoleon. III. has furnished new combinations for all the devotees of the lottery. At Milan the same infatuated class have "pointed a moral" of their own from the event—a ...

— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science - April, 1873, Vol. XI, No. 25. • Various

... crossed the road to meet him, full of joy at the prospect of encountering at least one friend, and marching under his protection into my new quarters. But I was doomed to a slight disappointment. For though for a moment, when he looked up, I fancied he recognised me, he did not discontinue his conversation ...

— Tom, Dick and Harry • Talbot Baines Reed

... not blindly. She knew that her marriage to a man whom she did not love was a sacrifice on her part of every hope of future happiness. Her girlish love for St. Genis had opened her eyes to the possibilities of happiness; she knew that Life could hold out a veritable cornucopia of delight and joy in a union which was hallowed by Love, and her ready sacrifice was therefore all the greater, all the more sublime, because it was ...

— The Bronze Eagle - A Story of the Hundred Days • Emmuska Orczy, Baroness Orczy

... as the greatest joy, can be met in a way to give new strength and new power for use if we have a sound philosophy and a well-guided, wholesome body to meet it. But these last are the work of years; and neither the philosophy nor the physical strength can ...

— Power Through Repose • Annie Payson Call

... Gordon] is struggling up the road, but she is such a wisp of bones that the wind threatens to overthrow her; so she has halted, preferring the rain to being cast down. I have sent her some dhoora, which will produce a spark of joy in her black and withered carcass. I told my man to see her into one of the huts, and thought he had done so. The night was stormy and rainy, and when I awoke I heard often a crying of a child near my hut within the enclosure. When I got up I went out to see what it was, ...

— The Life of Gordon, Volume I • Demetrius Charles Boulger

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