PLEASURE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does pleasure mean? 

• PLEASURE (noun)
  The noun PLEASURE has 5 senses:

1. a fundamental feeling that is hard to define but that people desire to experience

2. something or someone that provides a source of happiness

3. a formal expression

4. an activity that affords enjoyment

5. sexual gratification

  Familiarity information: PLEASURE used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PLEASURE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A fundamental feeling that is hard to define but that people desire to experience

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

pleasance; pleasure

Context example:

he was tingling with pleasure

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

feeling (the experiencing of affective and emotional states)

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

delectation; delight (a feeling of extreme pleasure or satisfaction)

enjoyment (the pleasure felt when having a good time)

pleasantness (the feeling caused by agreeable stimuli; one pole of a continuum of states of feeling)

comfort (a feeling of freedom from worry or disappointment)

sexual pleasure (pleasure derived from sexual activities)

Antonym:

pain (emotional distress; a fundamental feeling that people try to avoid)

Derivation:

please (give pleasure to or be pleasing to)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Something or someone that provides a source of happiness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

delight; joy; pleasure

Context example:

the new car is a delight

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

positive stimulus (a stimulus with desirable consequences)

Derivation:

please (give pleasure to or be pleasing to)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A formal expression

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Context example:

he serves at the pleasure of the President

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

choice; pick; selection (the person or thing chosen or selected)

Sense 4

Meaning:

An activity that affords enjoyment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

he puts duty before pleasure

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

activity (any specific behavior)

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

luxuriation (an activity that affords excessive pleasure and enjoyment)

Derivation:

please (give pleasure to or be pleasing to)

please (be the will of or have the will (to))

Sense 5

Meaning:

Sexual gratification

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

he took his pleasure of her

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

sex; sex activity; sexual activity; sexual practice (activities associated with sexual intercourse)

 Context examples 

It's a pleasure to help people who appreciate our efforts.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

His rages and battles were pleasures.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

My mother answered she had had that pleasure.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The teachers then shook hands with me and kissed me, and a murmur of pleasure ran through the ranks of my companions.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He may desire to escape pain, or to enjoy pleasure.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night.

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

If Jonathan and I were driving through it alone what a pleasure it would be.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It was agitation, pain, pleasure, a something between delight and misery.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

It would be very wrong if she did. She rides only for pleasure; you for health.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

In a few moments Catherine, with unaffected pleasure, assured her that she need not be longer uneasy, as the gentlemen had just left the pump-room.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)