ebullient

[ih-buhl-yuh nt, ih-boo l-]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR ebullient ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

overflowing with fervor, enthusiasm, or excitement; high-spirited: The award winner was in an ebullient mood at the dinner in her honor.

bubbling up like a boiling liquid.

Origin of ebullient

1590–1600; < Latin ēbullient- (stem of ēbulliēns 'boiling up,' present participle of ēbullīre), equivalent to ē- e-¹ + bulli- (derivative of bulla 'a bubble') + -ent- -ent

Related formse·bul·lient·ly, adverbnon·e·bul·lient, adjectivenon·e·bul·lient·ly, adverbun·e·bul·lient, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for ebullient

Contemporary Examples of ebullient

As that huge crowd headed back to their buses and cars and trains, the mood was ebullient.
“So Much Hope”: A Reporter Remembers the March on Washington
Hedrick Smith
August 27, 2013
Black Oxen is a reminder of the healthy benefits of cynicism, and in retrospect served as an early warning to an ebullient age.
American Dreams, 1923: Black Oxen by Gertrude Atherton
Nathaniel Rich
March 28, 2013
They were ebullient, he remembered, and at one point the new congressman took the reporter aside and sought his counsel.
The Humbling Tragedy of Jesse Jackson Jr.
James Warren
November 21, 2012
Young men in keffiyehs, middle-aged folks with backpacks, and ebullient women marched around the Wall Street Bull.
The Occupy Wall Street Blow-by-Blow
Matthew DeLuca
October 7, 2011
Greenblatt will turn a young 68 in a few months, and the last thing on his ebullient, flitting mind is death.
The Book That Changed the World
Jimmy So
October 7, 2011

Historical Examples of ebullient

Thus was it with the ebullient folk of Dodge on the dry occasion of Prohibition.
The Sunset Trail
Alfred Henry Lewis
The son, a young man of ebullient manner, greeted me in the courtyard.
Autobiography of a YOGI
Paramhansa Yogananda
They were arm in arm, full of happiness, full of the ebullient consciousness of their release.
The Hills of Refuge
Will N. Harben
As a primary step he was obliged to suppress his ebullient brother-in-law.
The President
Alfred Henry Lewis
Strangely enough the voice, though well-known, seemed to have a sobering effect on all these ebullient tempers.
"Unto Caesar"
Baroness Emmuska Orczy

British Dictionary definitions for ebullient

ebullient

adjective

overflowing with enthusiasm or excitement; exuberant

boiling

Derived Formsebullience or ebulliency, nounebulliently, adverb

Word Origin for ebullient

C16: from Latin ēbullīre to bubble forth, be boisterous, from bullīre to boil 1

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for ebullient

adj.

1590s, "boiling," from Latin ebullientem (nominative ebulliens), present participle of ebullire "to boil over," literally and figuratively, from ex- "out" (see ex-) + bullire "to bubble" (see boil (v.)). Figurative sense of "enthusiastic" is first recorded 1660s.