Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Full of high-spirited gaiety; jolly.
- adj. Marked by or offering fun and gaiety; festive: a merry evening.
- adj. Archaic Delightful; entertaining.
- adj. Brisk: a merry pace.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Exciting feelings of enjoyment and. gladness; causing cheerfulness or light-heartedness; pleasant; delightful; happy: as, the merry month of May; a merry spectacle.
- Playfully cheerful or gay; enlivened with gladness or good spirits; mirthful in speech or action; frolicsome; hilarious; jubilant: as, a merry company.
- Sportive and mirthful in quality or character; jocund; jovial; rollicking; funny: as, a merry heart; a merry song.
- Brisk; lively; cheery.
- Full of gibes: sneering; sarcastic.
- To make merry or glad; please; gratify; delight.
- Merrily; in a lively manner.
- n. The wild cherry of England, Prunus avium.
Wiktionary
- adj. Jolly and full of high spirits
- adj. Festive and full of fun and laughter
- adj. Brisk
- adj. happy or showing enjoyment
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Laughingly gay; overflowing with good humor and good spirits; jovial; inclined to laughter or play; sportive.
- adj. Cheerful; joyous; not sad; happy.
- adj. Causing laughter, mirth, gladness, or delight.
- n. (Bot.) A kind of wild red cherry.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. quick and energetic
- adj. full of or showing high-spirited merriment
- adj. offering fun and gaiety
Etymologies
- From Middle English merie, mirie, myrie, murie, murȝe, from Old English meriġe, miriġe, myriġe, myreġe, myrġe ("pleasing, agreeable; pleasant, sweet, delightful; melodious"), from Proto-Germanic *murguz (“short, slow”), from Proto-Indo-European *mréǵʰus (“short”). Cognate with Scots mery, mirry ("merry"), Old High German murg, murgi ("short, brief"; > German murk ("short, lazy")), Norwegian dialectal myrjel ("small object, figurine"), Latin brevis ("short, small, narrow, shallow"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English merri, from Old English mirige, pleasant; see mregh-u- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“But ere morning broke in upon them, many of the merry group were lying in a beastly state under the chairs and tables, or others had gone to bed; but this is what _they_ called spending a _merry night_.”
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 10, No. 282, November 10, 1827
“I use the term merry men not just as a very poor pun, but also because it perfectly encapsulates the group as an antagonistic presence in Hellsing.”
“A new song is better to him than a new jacket, especially if bawdy, which he calls merry; and hates naturally the puritan, as an enemy to this mirth.”
Microcosmography or, a Piece of the World Discovered; in Essays and Characters
“With an armed population, the things that happened in merry olde England wouldn't be repeated - hopefully.”
“I have to just point out to Jamie though that judgement is actually how we spell it over here in merry old England.”
“I'd love to give this a go here in merry old England, but so many Texan recipes end up becoming the long method when you have to order Rotel and even fresh jalapenos online.”
“If you sabotage a Republican campaign, you are a prankster, engaged in merry pranks which we all find hilarious.”
“Everyone in merry England can wake up and love the world the morning after St. George slays the dragon, but very few have the moral and physical courage to slay the dragon in the first place.”
“And I would pluck a tube from the tray, thrilled to have a choice where one had never been present before, and brush my teeth in merry contentment.”
“And the number of those who say they use the phrase merry Christmas was up 12 percent from last year.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘merry’.
-
Scrabble Names
Given names that were acceptable for play the last time I checked the OWL.
kris, ray, barb, morris, kat, mark, maria, erica, marge, mason, hunter, hazel and 168 more...
-
Adjectives
sagacious, average, angry, mad, crazy, giant, ugly, pretty, happy, sad, lonely, solitary and 119 more...
-
Do-it-yourself Christmas Carol List
Tired of singing the same carols year after year? Wanna mix it up a little? Now you can, with the Do-it-yourself Christmas Carol List (from the creator of the Doo-it-yourself Doowop List). Just mix...
let it, reindeer, silent, child, Christmas, got run over by a, mercy mild, winter, joyful, holly, newborn, king and 59 more...
-
Blootered
Slang words for people who are drunk
rat-arsed, merry, mortal, out of your tree, pissed, plastered, legless, ratted, soused, drunk, inebriated
-
Happy
joyous, jovial, glad, merry, delightful, ecstatic, cheerful, euphoria, jolly, lively, upbeat, pleasant and 1 more...
-
That's funny...
words that make you smile...
can be funny words, oxymorons or words describing laughter and fun.giggle, sniggle, snicker, chuckle, titter, guffaw, smile, hoot, twitter, hee-haw, tee-hee, snort and 68 more...
-
Happy, happy, joy, joy.
Feel good words.
great pleasure, joyfulness, jubilation, triumph, exultation, rejoicing, happiness, gladness, exhilaration, exuberance, bliss, felicity and 95 more...
-
reginaterra's Words
purl, blow, squish, andean, generality, adaptation, lush, pack, filter, acquiesce, abstraction, sweet and 508 more...
-
strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
-
If-Christ-Had-Not-Died-For-Thee-Thou-...
Words that have been used as baby names, including virtue names, nature names, place names, etc.
The title is an actual name given to a Puritan boy in the 17th century.faith, hope, grace, charity, chastity, prudence, patience, temperance, river, phoenix, stone, violet and 455 more...
-
zzyyxx's Words
plethora, drout, functional, rye, wring, doubt, cognative, weird, gnaw, surcease, rend, languish and 438 more...
-
Words Covered in Faery Dust (M)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
mace, macintosh, madras, magenta, magic 8 ball, magma, mahogany, maiden, mail, mainsail, maize, malachite and 169 more...
-
aliko's Words
deli, turkey, bodrum, deniz, sunny, seks, tatil, hava, zeeman, captain, kapitein, kaptan and 256 more...
-
monica's list
just words i think are pretty.
luminous, iridescent, crestfallen, wanderlust, autumn, autumnal, spark, candescence, exaltations, merry, empathy, tainted and 96 more...
-
feeling words
twitterpated, loquacious, ambiguous, pensive, sluggish, anxious, adventurous, curious, abandoned, absent-minded, abrasive, abused and 653 more...
-
SAT
abandon,extreme e..., abash,to humiliate, abate,to lessen, abbreviate,to sho..., abridge, abdicate,to forma..., aberration,depart..., abnormality, abet,to encourage, abhor,to hate, abide,to follow o..., abject,utterly ho... and 2228 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for merry.
bilby
Mother shakes the cherry-tree,
Susan catch a cherry;
Oh how funny that will be,
Let's be merry!
- Christina Rossetti, 'Let's Be Merry'. Nov 1, 2008
bilby You could wed Mary on Chrismtas Day and go for the trifecta. Aug 22, 2008
pterodactyl For some people, Mary, merry, and marry all sound different. For others, they sound the same. You can see a map of this phenomenon (in the US) here. Apr 10, 2008