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Synonyms

merry

1 American  
[mer-ee] / ˈmɛr i /

adjective

merrier, merriest

  1. full of cheerfulness or gaiety; joyous in disposition or spirit.

    a merry little man.
    Synonyms:
    glad, cheery, frolicsome, blithesome, blithe, happy
    Antonyms:
    sad

  2. laughingly happy; mirthful; festively joyous; hilarious.

    a merry time at the party.
    Synonyms:
    gleeful, jovial, jolly
    Antonyms:
    solemn

  3. Archaic. causing happiness; pleasant; delightful.

idioms

  1. make merry,

    1. to be happy or festive.

      The New Year's revelers were making merry in the ballroom.

    2. to make fun of; ridicule.

      The unthinking children made merry of the boy who had no shoes.
Merry 2 American  
[mer-ee] / ˈmɛr i /

noun

  1. a female given name.

merry British  
/ ˈmɛrɪ /

adjective

  1. cheerful; jolly

  2. very funny; hilarious

  3. informal slightly drunk

  4. archaic delightful

  5. to revel; be festive

  6. informal to disturb greatly; disrupt

"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

Pronunciation

See Mary.

Other Word Forms

  • merrily adverb
  • merriness noun
  • overmerrily adverb
  • overmerriness noun
  • overmerry adjective
  • unmerrily adverb
  • unmerry adjective

Etymology

Origin of merry

First recorded before 900; Middle English meri(e),myrie, murie, Old English myr(i)ge, mer(i)ge “pleasant, delightful”

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

These are merry, newly confident times in New England, but also a surprise.

From The Wall Street Journal

"I just thought to myself, the more the merrier," she says.

From BBC

Winter wonderlands are absent from these images, though many of the locales Mr. Friedlander captures are merry and bright.

From The Wall Street Journal

But in “A Child’s Christmas in Wales,” his riotous narrative inspired by his boyhood yuletides in the 1920s, Dylan Thomas serves up a dissenting version of the holiday as a merry mess.

From The Wall Street Journal

“I am as merry as a schoolboy,” he crows, suddenly young again.

From The Wall Street Journal

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.