Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun slang, pejorative A member of a Christian church whose worship is characterized by enthusiasm and spontaneity.
  • adjective slang, pejorative Of, or relating to such a worshiper or such a church.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The other spectre that haunts liberal economics – other than the lingering unhappiness that its happy-clappy consumerism generates – is the broaching of planetary boundaries for survival.

    The wellbeing agenda isn't navel-gazing, it's innovation and survival | Pat Kane 2011

  • Surely you can join Tatchell and Cohen and other decent people in condemning Ken Livingstone for his happy-clappy association with the Muslim fundamentalist cleric, Yusuf al-Qaradawi?

    Who will confront the hatred in Hungary? | Nick Cohen 2011

  • ÂSome stalwart grad student could write quite a paper on the undertones and resonances of a paragraph like this one: "Through British veins runs the poisonous fake idealism of "human rights" and "sensitivity," of happy-clappy multicultural groveling and sick, weak, deracinated moral universalism -- the rotten fruit of a debased, sentimentalized Christianity."

    Richard (RJ) Eskow: England's Ashes - America's Future? RJ 2011

  • Some stalwart grad student could write quite a paper on the undertones and resonances of a paragraph like this one: "Through British veins runs the poisonous fake idealism of "human rights" and "sensitivity," of happy-clappy multicultural groveling and sick, weak, deracinated moral universalism -- the rotten fruit of a debased, sentimentalized Christianity."

    Richard (RJ) Eskow: England's Ashes - America's Future? RJ 2011

  • The chilly halls, crusty old dons and whiff of decaying empire were a far cry from sunny, happy-clappy San Francisco.

    Naomi Wolf: true radical or ultra egoist? | Profile 2011

  • This is the happy-clappy voice of Google's PR operation, a vast exercise in passive aggression designed to prop up the perception that Eric, Larry and Sergey really, really, really, don't want to do evil.

    Google Vs. Governments: Google Reacts To Nations' Privacy Complaints 2010

  • Humanist doesn't mean happy-clappy--there's tragedy and pain, but the underlying sentiment is one that does not invoke despair, at least not in my cynical brain.

    Archive 2009-02-01 Kate 2009

  • And not to get all happy-clappy but it celebrates how opposing teams can bring out the best in one another and earn each other respect.

    Is Bring It On the Greatest Sports Film of All Time? Glenn Dunks 2009

  • This will bring happiness...not happy-clappy happiness but ultimate, eternal happiness.

    We must pray for death 2009

  • Humanist doesn't mean happy-clappy--there's tragedy and pain, but the underlying sentiment is one that does not invoke despair, at least not in my cynical brain.

    Reading, Writing, Cooking and Crafting: Humanist fiction Kate 2009

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