| 释义 |
▪ I. happy, a.|ˈhæpɪ|
[f. hap n.1 + -y.]
†1. Coming or happening by chance; fortuitous; chance. Obs. rare.
1513Douglas æneis v. Prol. 3 The wery hunter to fynd his happy pray. 1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. iii. ii. 258 Any happy concourse of Atoms.
2. a. Having good ‘hap’ or fortune; lucky, fortunate; favoured by lot, position, or other external circumstance.
1375Barbour Bruce i. 121 Wys men sayis he is happy That be othir will him chasty. c1400Destr. Troy 11217 He is happy, þat a harme hastely amendes. c1440Promp. Parv. 226/2 Happy, fortunatus. c1470Henry Wallace i. 376 Happy he was, tuk fysche haboundanle. 1546J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 7 Happy man happy dole. c1572Gascoigne Fruites Warre lxxvi. Wks. 1869 I. 166 He..Weenes yet at last to make a happie hande By bloudie warre. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. xi, I was so happy as not to be thereabouts at that time. 1741Middleton Cicero I. vi. 495 The happy set of liberty, plenty, and letters. 1895L. J. Smith in Law Times Rep. LXXIII. 692/1 A testator in the happy position of having..realty both in Lancashire and in America.
†b. Blessed, beatified. Obs. of happy memory, a phrase conventionally applied to the deceased.
1526Tindale Jas. i. 25 He shalbe happi in his dede. c1550Cheke Matt. v. 3 Happi be y⊇ beggars in sprijt. 1604E. G. D'Acosta's Hist. Indies i. iv. 15 As the happy Chrysostome hath learnedly spoken. 1611Bible John xiii. 17 If yee know these things, happy are ye if ye doe them. 1693Humours Town 69 To the Assigns of Tom. Saffold, of happy Memory. 1700T. Brown tr. Fresny's Amusem. Ser. & Com. 84 Prettier than Dony of Happy Memory.
c. happy land, a prosperous, favourable, etc., land; spec., heaven.
1787S. Stennett in J. Rippon Selection of Hymns 584, I stand, And cast a wishful Eye, To Canaan's fair and happy Land. 1806T. G. Fessenden Democracy Unveiled (ed. 3) I. 85 Such principles, alas, will flood Columbia's ‘happy land’ with blood. 1845C. H. Bateman Children's Hymn-Bk. 36 There is a happy land Far far away. 1893M. Danvers Grantham Myst. xiii, The old 'un will soon join the young 'un in the happy land. 1902Daily Chron. 6 Feb. 5/2 During the great..strike..a rhyme went round beginning ‘There is a happy land, far, far way [sic], Where no blacklegs ever go’. 1943M. Kantor (title) Happy land. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. xvii. 365 There is a happy land by the ‘Red School’ Where Miss Macdonald stands, preaching like a fool.
3. Characterized by or involving good fortune; fortunate, lucky; prosperous; favourable, propitious. (Now used only in certain collocations, in which there is association with senses 4 or 5.) Also in certain familiar or conventional special collocations: happy day, wedding day; happy days!, a drinking toast; similarly, esp. in aviation circles, happy landings!; happy ending, an ending in a novel, play, etc., in which the characters acquire spouses, money, do not die, etc.; happy event, the birth of a baby; happy pair, an engaged or newly wedded couple; happy release, (esp.) death; many happy returns: see return n. 2b.
1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 1334 Continuel happy commyng Of worldly gudes, es a takenyng Of þe dampnacion þat sal be. 1434Misyn Mending of Life xii. 130 A Ioyfull hap & happy ioy. a1533Ld. Berners Huon xlvii. 157 It was happy for them that the wether was so fayre. 1576Fleming Panopl. Epist. 378 What king in his adventures hath had more happie successe? 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 2 In lesse then one houre..we enjoyed a happie blast. 1697Dryden Alexander's Feast 1 The Lovely Thais by his side, Sate like a blooming Eastern Bride..Happy, happy, happy Pair! 1702C. Sedley (title) The happy pair: or, a poem on matrimony. 1734W. Snelgrave Guinea 277 It proved very happy for me. 1739–40S. Richardson Pamela (1740) II. 151 May I hope, my Pamela, said he, that next Thursday shall certainly be the happy Day? 1789G. Parker Life's Painter xiv. 115 (title) The happy pair. 1789Lady Newdigate Let. 2 June in A. E. Newdigate-Newdegate Cheverels (1898) vi. 84 Many happy returns of y⊇ day to us my Dr Love. 1821[see return n. 2 b]. 1838Dickens Nich. Nick. (1839) xiv. 124 Many happy returns of the day, my dear. 1839Murchison Silur. Syst. i. xxxvi. 489 When one of those happy accidents occurs. [1848Mrs. Gaskell Mary Barton I. xi. 205 So anticipating a happy ending to the course of her love, however distant it might be, she fell asleep.] 1850Thackeray Pendennis II. xxxvii. 357 The ardent Foker pressed onwards the happy day. 1850Dickens in Househ. Words 19 Oct. 74/1 His wife unfortunately took to drinking..before happy release in every point of view. 1861― Gt. Expect. xi, ‘This is my birthday, Pip’. I was going to wish her many happy returns. 1864― in All Year Round 1 Dec. 7/2 Then I shouldn't have the agonies of trying to understand him which was a happy release. 1884H. James in Longman's Mag. Sept. 506 Another would say that it depends for a ‘happy ending’ on a distribution at the last of prizes, pensions, husbands, wives, babies, millions, appended paragraphs and cheerful remarks. 1913G. B. Shaw Quintessence of Ibsenism (rev. ed.) 192 The substitution of a sentimental happy ending for the famous last scene. 1929E. Bowen Joining Charles 122 She was such a good soul—it seemed quite a happy release. 1934Evening News 25 July 4/5 Ronnie swallowed half the whisky... ‘Happy landings, Phyllis..dear!’.. The powder left his fingers, missed the glass. 1934R. S. Lambert For Filmgoers Only 68 ‘Happy endings’ are in much greater evidence on the screen than, for instance, in the play. 1934E. Wharton Backward Glance vii. 147 The American public always wants..a tragedy with a happy ending. 1935G. Greene Basement Room 106 ‘Your health, my dear. You look younger than ever.’ ‘Happy days,’ Amy said. 1938― Brighton Rock v. v. 213 ‘When's the happy day?’ Cubitt said and they all smiled. 1940Partridge Dict. Clichés 100 Happy event, a or the, the birth of a child; esp. the first in a family: mostly lower-middle class: from ca. 1880. 1946T. Rattigan Winslow Boy i. 29 Happy pair, I think, is the phrase that is eluding you. 1951J. B. Priestley Festival at Farbridge ii. i. 199 ‘Happy days!’ cried Mobbs. ‘Cheers!’ said the Major gloomily. 1953P. Frankau Winged Horse iii. ii. 199 The glass lifted. ‘Happy Landings,’ Carey said. 1957N. Frye Anat. Criticism 104 Most students of literature prefer to keep in the middle distance..run-of-the-mill Elizabethan sonnets and love lyrics,..nineteenth-century happy-ending novels. 1960Times 9 Jan. 7/7 The further analysis of ‘happy events’ that occurred in 1959..reveals 7,070 births. 1966T. Walsh Face of Enemy (1968) 62 Another drink was handed to him... ‘Happy days, old boy.’ 1969Times 20 Mar. 16/2 Aunt Juju, in her harping upon ‘happy events’..knows more about life and death than Hedda.
4. a. Having a feeling of great pleasure or content of mind, arising from satisfaction with one's circumstances or condition; also in weakened sense: Glad, pleased.
1525Ld. Berners Froiss. II. clxxxvii. [clxxxiv.] 572 Therfore it is an olde prouerbe: he is nat poore yt is happy. 1562J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 145 Better be happy then wise. 1635Shirley Coronat. v, Heaven created him, To make her happy. a1699A. Halkett Autobiog. (1875) 5 Resolved to leave England since he could not be Hapy in itt. a1732Gay Songs & Ball, New Song on New Similes (1784) II. 117 Full as an egg was I with glee, And happy as a king. 1773in Wilkes' Corr. (1805) IV. 161, I am happy at your liking Eastbourn so well. 1785Paley Mor. Philos. i. vi. (1830) 15 In strictness, any condition may be denominated happy, in which the amount or aggregate of pleasure exceeds that of pain. 1847Marryat Childr. N. Forest xi, We will do all we can to make you happy. 1891O. W. Holmes Lett. Oct., I am glad to hear that you are well and busy, which is, I think, the same as being happy.
b. Freq. with neg., as not (at all) happy, not entirely happy, not quite happy about (or with), usually indicating substantial dissatisfaction. Cf. not adv. 10 b.
1947People 22 June 7/5 The receiving club were not at all happy about this. 1967N. Freeling Strike Out 21, I dropped a monstrous clanger, letting anybody see I wasn't happy, but..I'm still not happy. 1971Guardian 2 Dec. 11/2 She says, with some delicacy, that the studio, Paramount, was ‘not happy with it’ and failed to promote it.
c. happy family: (a) a conventional description of a harmonious family; also fig.; (b) (see family n. 2 b); (c) Austral., a popular name of the grey-crowned babbler (Struthidea cinerea); also called happy jack.
1868F. Harrison Let. 11 Nov. in Geo. Eliot's Lett. (1955) IV. 484, I know of no worse instance of the monkey-like criticism of the day, than the way in which the hedge-sparrows of the reviews (forgive this ‘happy family’ of metaphors) chirrup out their blame or praise. 1901[see apostle III]. 1927T. E. Lawrence Lett. (1938) 539 The happy family is the squadron or flight, and the misery of discipline..is resident in depots and work⁓shops. 1932Week-end Rev. 30 July 139/2 You just treat 'em like one big, happy family. 1939Times Lit. Suppl. 14 Jan. 27/1 In spite of the title she has given to her book, Miss Stevenson's heroine comes from anything but a happy family. 1945Baker Austral. Lang. xii. 211 The Grey-crowned Babbler is known..as the..happy family, happy jack. 1946Visct. Montgomery El Alamein Foreword, The Eighth Army was a very happy family. 1958N. W. Cayley What Bird is That? (ed. 2) 69 Also called Grey Jumper, Happy Family. 1963Austral. Encycl. I. 385/1 Babblers..commonly known as catbirds (or caties), chatterers, happy families, and apostle-birds.
d. happy families: a game played with a pack of special cards, each card depicting on its face a member of a tradesman's family of four; it is the aim of each player to make as many complete families as he can.
1881Cassell's Bk. In-Door Amusem. 142 The well-known game of Happy Families is nothing but a variation of Spade the Gardener. 1918‘C. Dane’ First Blade xxv, An early passion for Happy Families. 1954E. Hyams Stories & Cream 50 ‘Play cards, pal?’.. The other man said, in a rather nasty way, ‘Ah, 'appy families, I suppose?’ 1955J. Lehmann Whispering Gallery iv. 225 We were like a pack of cards for Happy Families.
5. a. Successful in performing what the circumstances require; apt, dexterous; felicitous.
happy dispatch: see dispatch, hara-kiri. happy warrior, applied conventionally to an excellent soldier; also fig.
c1340Cursor M. 3505 (Fairf.) He was happy to gammys sere Of beste of wode of fowels of riuer. a1400Morte Arth. 3878 Hardyeste of hande, happyeste in armes. a1533Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) G viij, He was apt and happie in armes. 1591Shakes. Two Gent. iv. i. 34 Haue you the Tongues? Val. My youthfull trauaile, therein made me happy. 1715Bentley Serm. x. 338 Our English Translators have not been very happy in their Version of this Passage. 1738Swift Pol. Convers. Introd. 3 One Gentleman is happy at a Reply; another excels in a Rejoinder. 1806[see warrior II. 2]. 1884G. Shaw-Lefevre in 19th Cent. Jan. 37 The artist..has been most happy in depicting the parents reposing in death. 1915D. O. Barnett Let. 1 July 200 The ‘happy warrior’ who did the deed is in my platoon, one Finlay, and his hair is red. 1924F. D. Roosevelt in N.Y. Times 27 June 4/3 He [sc. Alfred E. Smith] is the ‘Happy Warrior’ of the political battle⁓field. 1959Listener 12 Nov. 843/3 Ernest Jones was a happy warrior.
b. Of actions, etc.: Characterized by fitness for the circumstance or occasion; appropriate, fitting, felicitous.
c1340Cursor M. 4677 (Fairf.) Þorou his awen happy [v. rr. scel-wis, witti] rede He filled wiþ wine baþ quyte and rede. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, iii. ii. 18 Saint Dennis blesse this happy Stratageme. 1596― 1 Hen. IV, v. iv. 162 If a lye may do thee grace Ile gil'd it with the happiest tearmes I haue. 1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. i. i. §8 The happy use the Primitive learned Christians made of all those passages. 1779Sheridan Critic ii. i, A most happy thought. 1779Cowper Lett. 21 Sept., The situation is happy, the gardens elegantly disposed. 1793Beddoes Math. Evid. 82 His definition appears to me far from happy. 1862Mill Utilit. 84 This happy thought was considered to get rid of the whole difficulty. 1879McCarthy Own Times II. xxix. 391 No comparison could be more misleading or less happy. Mod. No happier reply could have been given.
c. happy medium = golden mean (golden a. 5 c).
1778English Mag. Feb. 59/2 All extremes are ridiculous: the happy medium is to be aimed at. 1782J. Priestley Hist. Corrupt. Chr. I. ii. viii. 272 Other persons..were able..to hit the happy medium between the popish doctrine of merit..and that of the total insignificance of good works. 1901Ade Forty Modern Fables 51 Moral: only one in a thousand ever strikes the happy medium. 1920Ladies' Home Jrnl. Oct. 163/2 There is a happy medium. 1947K. Tennant Lost Haven (1968) x. 164 Ain't there no bloody happy medium?
d. Exhibiting harmony or co-operation, esp. happy ship, a ship on which the crew work together harmoniously; also transf. of the conduct of any organization.
1905Westm. Gaz. 9 Dec. 16/1 There never was a ‘happier ship’, and from captain to cabin-boy all worked cordially together. 1916‘Taffrail’ Pincher Martin iii. 43 The Belligerent was notoriously a happy ship. 1929T. E. Lawrence Home Lett. (1954) 375 The camp is comfortable, & the airmen say it is a happy place. 1950W. J. M. Mackenzie in G. F. M. Campion Brit. Govt. since 1918 83 A branch or a department may be a theoretical monstrosity and yet be a ‘happy ship’; and traditionally a ‘happy ship’ is the only efficient ship. 1955Times 10 May 5/6 A visit to our Combined Training team recently gave the pleasant impression of a thoroughly ‘happy ship’ and, without undue confidence, that it will take a very good team indeed to beat them. 1958P. Kemp No Colours or Crest iii. 26 Fidelity was not a happy ship. 1958Observer 31 Aug. 19/3 The team was an undeniably happy one with immense spirit.
e. Of drugs: in certain colloquial phrases with the sense ‘intended to produce or induce happiness’, e.g. happy dust, cocaine; happy pill, a tranquillizer.
1922E. Murphy Black Candle i. vii. 67 The boxes were found to contain cocaine, or ‘happy-dust’. 1929H. Miles tr. Morand's Black Magic i. i. 12 Cocaine (or ‘happy-dust’, as Congo said). 1937E. St. V. Millay Conversation at Midnight iv. 114 Your head's So full of dope, so full of happy-dust..you're just a drug Addict. 1956A. Huxley Let. 14 Mar. (1969) 791 The present mass consumption of ‘Happy Pills’, (Miltown-Equanil). 1964E. Dundy Old Man & Me xviii. 176 Those heart⁓shaped ‘happy-pills’ of soft musty mauve, pale blue, or apple-green, with that faint incision down their middles. 1966I. Asimov Fantastic Voyage i. 11 You've got that tranquillizer gleam in your eye, doctor. I don't need any happy pills.
6. colloq. humorous. Slightly drunk; ‘elevated’.
1770Gentl. Mag. XL. 559 To express the Condition of an Honest Fellow..under the effects of good fellowship, it is said that he is..Happy. 1833Marryat P. Simple xxx, An opportunity of making himself a ‘little happy’.
b. happy hour (orig. U.S.), a period of time (usu. in the early evening) during which drinks are served in a bar, etc., at reduced prices, or when free hors-d'œuvres are available.
1961Providence Jrnl. 4 July 24/2 All went home happy except the Newport police..and those deprived of their happy hour at the cocktail bar. 1967Atlantic Monthly July 58/2 There have been other near tragedies which are, in retrospect, awfully good happy-hour bar stories. 1979Tucson Mag. Feb. 101/2 Free hors d'oeuvres during happy hour (4–8). 1985Times 12 Aug. 8 Most restaurants and bars have been forced to forget about ‘happy hour’ where drinks are cheaper.
7. Comb. as happy-hearted, happy-making, happy-natured, happy-seeming, happy-tempered.
1597Daniel Civ. Wars Poems (1717) 208 Yet happy⁓hapless Day, blest ill-lost Breath, Both for our better Fortune, and your own! c1630Milton Time 18 Him, to whose happy-making sight..When once our heavenly-guided soul shall climb. 1858–61J. Brown Horæ Subs. (1863) 163 A singularly happy, and happy-making man. Ibid., Miss Stirling Graham (1882) 173 She retained to the last her happy-heartedness. 1864E. H. W. Sonn. & Poems, Longest & Shortest, ‘O summer day! so soon away!’ The happyhearted sigh and say. 1921D. H. Lawrence Sea & Sardinia 56 Old wood..happy-seeming as iron never can be. 1924Mrs. Belloc Lowndes Terriford Myst. iii. 35 Yet she looked so happy-natured. 1946E. Sitwell Fanfare for Elizabeth xv. 155 Katherine Parr, a happy-natured, placid woman. 1952S. Spender Learning Laughter 103, I never noticed such a happy-seeming family.
b. Used in certain comparative or hyperbolical phrases, e.g. (as) happy as the day (is long); as happy as Larry (see Larry n.3). Also, with reference to the happy endings of fairy tales, novels, etc., happy (also happily) ever after(wards).
1786Cowper Let. 9 Feb. (1904) II. 462 We will be as happy as the day is long. 1823C. Lamb Let. 6 Jan. (1935) II. 361 May your granaries be full..and you as idle and as happy as the day is long! 1853C. M. Yonge Heir of Redclyffe II. xii. 187 Guy..and Amy..were in a course of living very happy ever after. 1858Lytton What will he Do? IV. viii. iii. 61 And then they would live happy ever afterward as in fairy tales. 1864Geo. Eliot Let. 23 Nov. (1956) IV. 168 He is as happy as the day is long—and very good—one of those creatures to whom goodness comes naturally. 1873L. Troubridge Life amongst Troubridges (1966) viii. 67 The hero and heroine..marry comfortably off in the end and live happily ever after. 1905Westm. Gaz. 1 July 7/1 This, of course, is the so-called ‘happy-ever-after’ ending: in most cases the comedies of this type are..artificial. 1925R. Hall Saturday Life xi. 122 Eight weeks ago she had seemed as happy as the day. 1938Times Lit. Suppl. 15 Jan. 43/3 Thus a story which..ends on a happily-ever-after note. 1960Observer 8 Feb. 14/7 There's a nasty rumour in some studios that the next fad will be ‘happy ever after’ endings. 1963Harper's Bazaar May 11 The happy-ever-after heroine is you!
▪ II. † happy, v. Obs.
[f. prec. adj.]
trans. To render happy.
c1600Shakes. Sonn. vi, That use is not forbidden usery Which happies those that pay the willing lone. 1600–26Breton's Pasquil's Message iii, While onely Trueth..Happieth the Heart, and makes the Soule divine. 1632Heywood 2nd Pt. Iron Age v. Wks. 1874 III. 419 We are happied euer. |