merry
nounEtymology From French merise.
1
An English wild cherry.
- Related terms
- cherry-merry, cherry-merry-bamboo
merry
adjUK /ˈmɛ.ɹi/ · US /ˈmɛ.ɹi/
Etymology From Middle English myrie, merie, mery, from Old English myrġe, myriġe (“pleasing, agreeable; pleasant, sweet, delightful; melodious”), from Proto-West Germanic *murgī (“short, slow, leisurely”), from Proto-Germanic *murguz (“short, slow”), from Proto-Indo-European *mréǵʰus (“short”). Cognate with Scots mery, mirry (“merry”), Middle Dutch mergelijc (“pleasant, agreeable, joyful”), Norwegian dialectal myrjel (“small object, figurine”), Latin brevis (“short, small, narrow, shallow”), Ancient Greek βραχύς (brakhús, “short”). Doublet of brief.
1
Jolly and full of high spirits; happy.
- We had a very merry Christmas.
- 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]:
1 more example
- 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:
2
Festive and full of fun and laughter.
- Everyone was merry at the party.
- 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:
3
Brisk.
- The play moved along at a merry pace.
- The car moved at a merry clip.
4
Causing laughter, mirth, gladness, or delight.
- a merry jest
- 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:
5
Euphemistic Drunk; tipsy.
- Some of us got a little merry at the office Christmas party.
- Derived terms
44 terms
be on one's merry way, continue on one's merry way, go on one's merry way, like merry hell, make merry, Mary-marry-merry merger, merrily, merriment, merriness, Merriweather, merry-andrew, merry as a cricket, merry as a grig, merrybell, merry chase, merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, merry cocker, merry company, merry dance, merry dancers, merrydom, merry-go-around, merry-go-down, merry-go-round, merry-go-sorry, merry-go-whirl, Merry Hill, Merry Lees, merrymaker, merry-maker, merry-making, merrymaking, merryman, merrymeeting, merry-meeting, merry men, merrythought, merry-totter, merry widow, merry Xmas, overmerry, play merry havoc with, play merry hell with- Related terms
- mirth