MERRIMENT

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does merriment mean? 

• MERRIMENT (noun)
  The noun MERRIMENT has 2 senses:

1. a gay feeling

2. activities that are enjoyable or amusing

  Familiarity information: MERRIMENT used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MERRIMENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A gay feeling

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

gaiety; merriment

Hypernyms ("merriment" is a kind of...):

happiness (emotions experienced when in a state of well-being)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "merriment"):

glee; gleefulness; hilarity; mirth; mirthfulness (great merriment)

jocularity; jocundity (a feeling facetious merriment)

jolliness; jollity; joviality (feeling jolly and jovial and full of good humor)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Activities that are enjoyable or amusing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

fun; merriment; playfulness

Context example:

he is fun to have around

Hypernyms ("merriment" is a kind of...):

diversion; recreation (an activity that diverts or amuses or stimulates)

 Context examples 

Another minute brought them up with the rear-guard, where every man marched with his beard on his shoulder and a face which was agrin with merriment.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The room and the house were silent: only now and then the merriment of the billiard-players was heard from above.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

"Oh! That does me no end of good. Tell on, please," he said, taking his face out of the sofa cushion, red and shining with merriment.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“What is the cause of the merriment?” she asked.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I was very merry, I know; but it was hollow merriment.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I burst out laughing, out of sympathy with her merriment; but Grant Munro stood staring, with his hand clutching his throat.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

An extraordinary change had come over his face. It was writhing with inward merriment. His two eyes were shining like stars.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The stage could no longer excite genuine merriment—no longer keep her whole attention.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

A happy party it appeared to her, all interested in one object: cheerful beyond a doubt, for the sound of merriment ascended even to her.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

They then took leave of the king, and got into the coach with eight horses, and all set out, full of joy and merriment, for the prince’s kingdom, which they reached safely; and there they lived happily a great many years.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)