Pollyannaishadj.
/ˌpɒlɪˈanə(r)ɪʃ/, U.S. /ˌpɑliˈænəɪʃ/ Resembling Pollyanna; naively cheerful and optimistic; unrealistically happy.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > pleasure > cheerfulness > [adjective] > cheerfully optimistic > naively
Pollyanna1917
Pollyannaish1922
1922 E. E. Cummings Let. 26 Feb. (1969) 83 Three Soldiers having, in his absence, been rendered Polyannish..by the highly moral Doran.
1948 Time 6 Dec. 90/2 Mildly Saroyanesque throughout and a trifle Pollyannaish at the end, in its best scenes The Silver Whistle is genuinely funny.
2002 Church Times 6 Dec. 14/2 I am not being Pollyanna-ish about that—I genuinely think that, under pressure, remarkable things happen.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1922- to make a good fist
- to make a good job of
- to make a good landfall
- to make a good penny of, by, from
- to make a good show
- to make a good thing of
- to make a good thing out of
- to make a good, etc, go of
- to make a good, poor, etc, showing
- to make a grand slam
- to make a great face
- to make a grimace or grimaces
- to make a hack in the post
- to make a haggis of
- to make a hames of
- to make a hand
- to make a hand of
- to make a hand on
- to make a hand with
- to make a hands
- to make a hard mouth
- to make a hard mouths
- to make a hard shift
- to make a hare of
- to make a hash of