rosy
adjective
pink or pinkish-red; roseate.
rosy
1 American
[roh-zee]
/ ˈroʊ zi /
adjective
-
rosier,
comparative
-
rosiest
superlative
-
pink or pinkish-red; roseate.
-
(of persons, the cheeks, lips, etc.) having a fresh, healthy redness.
- Antonyms:
- pale
-
bright or promising.
a rosy future.
- Antonyms:
- unpromising
-
cheerful or optimistic.
rosy anticipations.
- Antonyms:
- cheerless
-
made or consisting of roses.
a rosy bower.
Rosy
2
American
[roh-zee]
/ ˈroʊ zi /
noun
rosy
British
/ ˈrəʊzɪ /
adjective
-
of the colour rose or pink
-
having a healthy pink complexion
rosy cheeks
-
optimistic, esp excessively so
a rosy view of social improvements
-
full of health, happiness, or joy
rosy slumbers
-
resembling, consisting of, or abounding in roses
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of rosy
Middle English word dating back to 1325–75; see origin at rose 1, -y 1
Explanation
Use the adjective rosy to describe something that's healthy and pink, like a child's rosy cheeks or a rosy lipstick. A flushed face is rosy — it's the glowing pink color of a natural blush, and it implies good health. From this meaning comes the secondary one, "optimistic or lucky." If the future looks rosy to you, it appears that great things are going to happen, and if someone has a rosy nature, they're cheerful. Rosy is from rose and its Latin root, rosa.
Vocabulary lists containing rosy
Pink
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Excerpt from "The Little Mermaid"
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The World According to Humphrey
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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.
See Examples For:
The rosy report gives the Fed more room to raise interest rates at its next meeting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
Buoyed by Nvidia’s rosy outlook for semiconductor sales next year, the S&P 500’s information technology sector was the lone industry in the green, notching a 3.4% gain that pushed the broad index up 0.7%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Most of the rosy posts made some mention of the fact that Columbia House’s operation was unethical at best, but that the customer-service runarounds, unwelcome bills and general scuzziness had all faded with time.
From Salon ● Aug. 21, 2026
"We've got to be realistic, not get carried away and think everything is going to be rosy," said Carrick last week.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
A rosy golden glow filled the salon, and Aru had a strange vision of someone gathering up the first light of dawn in hundreds of buckets.
From "Aru Shah and the End of Time" by Roshani Chokshi
Adrian Aceves, a physician living in downtown Washington, said he'd be staying in with his five-year-old mutt Rosy, "trying to distract her with treats and toys, and I will medicate her."
From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026
As younger Kay, Rosy McEwen carries the past-set scenes, and could support a series of her own.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2026
Rosy sentiment was further boosted by a detente in the US-China trade war, with top leaders agreeing Thursday to walk back punitive measures that had disrupted international supply chains and manufacturing sectors.
From Barron's ● Oct. 31, 2025
Rosy was on a trip to Rome without his guitar, and the rest of the band were in San Diego.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2025
Following some brief and, as I was later to observe, characteristically tense small talk with Rosy, Maurice and I walked down the Strand and across to Choy’s Restaurant in Soho.
From "Double Helix" by James D. Watson
Rewind to January, and the picture was rosier for cash savers: The average APY of the top 10 high-yield savings account was 4.05%, Bankrate data showed.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
But a rampant League Cup win against St Mirren, followed by four league wins on the bounce, and things look a bit rosier heading into Sunday's game at Ibrox.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
“The Dog Stars” is based on Peter Heller’s 2012 novel of the same name, which, in those naive, pre-COVID times, was received as a rosier take on Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
The selling began overnight in South Korea after chip giant Samsung Electronics’ rosy earnings outlook failed to meet investors’ even rosier expectations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
Nick Hammond, the classicist head tutor at Clare, painted a much rosier outlook for their foreign research students.
From "Double Helix" by James D. Watson
Anthropic doesn’t expect to spend nearly as much, but its rosiest forecasts tell a similar story of mounting computing costs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 6, 2026
Even the rosiest predictions show rivers like the Elwha and Dungeness will still only flow with around 80% of their normal water levels, said Brent Bower, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 6, 2024
That kind of massive technological rollout is many years away in the rosiest of scenarios.
From New York Times ● Jun. 14, 2023
When West launched his Sunday Service campaign from a secretive Calabasas location in 2019, the backdrop wasn’t the rosiest.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2022
And not even the rosiest glasses could make my crop situation look good.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
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.
