cheerful
adjectivecommon in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈt͡ʃɪəfl̩//
- United States//ˈt͡ʃɪɹfl̩//
- //ˈt͡ʃɜː(ɹ)fəl//
- //ˈt͡ʃɜː(ɹ)fʊl//
Noticeably happy and optimistic.
adjective
- 1
Noticeably happy and optimistic.
Ever in cheerfullest mood art thou, when others are filled with Gloomy forebodings of illl, and see only ruin before them.
He moped, she felt, as the time went by, and he was cheerfuler only when some letter, full of hope without expectation, came from Dick.
The Eskimo is a nobler, cheerfuller and easy-goinger person than we smug civilized citizens have always imagined. Rockwell Kent, the noted Eskimophile, claims they are a polite and happy race.
- 2
Bright and pleasant.
They enjoyed a cheerful room.
At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors.[…]In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.
Etymology
From Middle English chereful, cherful, equivalent to cheer + -ful.
Forms
- comparative
- more cheerful, cheerfuler, cheerfuller
- superlative
- most cheerful, cheerfulest, cheerfullest
cheerful · Noticeably happy and optimistic.
cheering · A cheer.cheerio · Goodbye, an interjection said upon parting.Cheerio · An individual piece of the Cheerios breakfast cereal.