happy as the day is long

Idioms  

1. Also, happy as a lark; happy as a clam (at high tide). Extremely glad, delighted, very cheerful, as in He was happy as the day is long, or When she heard the news she was happy as a lark, or Once I got the test results I was happy as a clam at high tide. The first of these similes dates from the late 1700s. The second alludes to the lark's beautiful, seemingly very happy, song. The third, from the early 1800s, alludes to the fact that clams can only be dug at low tide and therefore are safe at high tide; it is often shortened to happy as a clam.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

happy as the day is long

He had made his fortune, much to everybody's surprise, by capturing a cruel ogre, and he had married Lizbeth the goose-girl, and they were as happy as the day is long.

From The Blue Rose Fairy Book by Maurice Baring

The truth is that they were as happy as the day is long.

From Japanese Fairy Tales by Grace James

Inhabitants of far Japan Are happy as the day is long To sit behind a paper fan And sing a kind of tuneless song, Desisting, ev'ry little while, To have a public bath, or smile.

From Verse and Worse by Harry Graham

Here's a splendid home for him, where he'll be as happy as the day is long.

From Thirty Years in Australia by Ada Cambridge

Now he is as happy as the day is long, and like a tame cat in my hands.

From Is He Popenjoy? by Anthony Trollope