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MERRIMENT
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Activities that are enjoyable or amusing
Example:
he is fun to have around
Synonyms:
fun; merriment; playfulness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("merriment" is a kind of...):
diversion; recreation (an activity that diverts or amuses or stimulates)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A gay feeling
Synonyms:
gaiety; merriment
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
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)
Context examples:
Even Emma grew tired at last of flattery and merriment, and wished herself rather walking quietly about with any of the others, or sitting almost alone, and quite unattended to, in tranquil observation of the beautiful views beneath her.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Finally he described, amongst some merriment, the ingenious but highly dangerous aeronautic invention of Professor Challenger, and wound up a most memorable address by an account of the methods by which the committee did at last find their way back to civilization.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
She returned just in time to join the others as they quitted the house, on an excursion through its more immediate premises; and the rest of the morning was easily whiled away, in lounging round the kitchen garden, examining the bloom upon its walls, and listening to the gardener's lamentations upon blights, in dawdling through the green-house, where the loss of her favourite plants, unwarily exposed, and nipped by the lingering frost, raised the laughter of Charlotte,—and in visiting her poultry-yard, where, in the disappointed hopes of her dairy-maid, by hens forsaking their nests, or being stolen by a fox, or in the rapid decrease of a promising young brood, she found fresh sources of merriment.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
"Nearly seventy, I believe," answered Meg, counting stitches to hide the merriment in her eyes.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Again he stretched his hand out to the romance, and again came that roguish burst of merriment.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Finally, on the top corridor, which ran outside three untenanted bedrooms, he again was seized with a spasm of merriment.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“Fool! Imbecile! Yahoo!” I shouted, when I thought it was meet to arouse Maud; but this time I shouted in merriment as I danced about the beach, bareheaded, in mock despair.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
There was little time, however, for the indulgence of any images of merriment.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
It was horrible to Emma to think how it must sink him in the general opinion, to foresee the smiles, the sneers, the merriment it would prompt at his expense; the mortification and disdain of his brother, the thousand inconveniences to himself.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
And then, under this high-pitched, ringing sound there was another, more intermittent, a low, deep-chested laugh, a growling, throaty gurgle of merriment which formed a grotesque accompaniment to the shriek with which it was blended.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
