Chapter Happiness to Hardened of H by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

Happiness to Hardened

Happiness
(Hap"pi*ness), n. [From Happy.]

1. Good luck; good fortune; prosperity.

All happiness bechance to thee in Milan!

Shak.

2. An agreeable feeling or condition of the soul arising from good fortune or propitious happening of any kind; the possession of those circumstances or that state of being which is attended with enjoyment; the state of being happy; contentment; joyful satisfaction; felicity; blessedness.

3. Fortuitous elegance; unstudied grace; — used especially of language.

Some beauties yet no precepts can declare,
For there's a happiness, as well as care.

Pope.

Syn. — Happiness, Felicity, Blessedness, Bliss. Happiness is generic, and is applied to almost every kind of enjoyment except that of the animal appetites; felicity is a more formal word, and is used more sparingly in the same general sense, but with elevated associations; blessedness is applied to the most refined enjoyment arising from the purest social, benevolent, and religious affections; bliss denotes still more exalted delight, and is applied more appropriately to the joy anticipated in heaven.

O happiness! our being's end and aim!

Pope.

Others in virtue place felicity,
But virtue joined with riches and long life;
In corporal pleasures he, and careless ease.

Milton.

His overthrow heaped happiness upon him;
For then, and not till then, he felt himself,
And found the blessedness of being little.

Shak.

Happy
(Hap"py) a. [Compar. Happier (-pi*er); superl. Happiest.] [From Hap chance.]

1. Favored by hap, luck, or fortune; lucky; fortunate; successful; prosperous; satisfying desire; as, a happy expedient; a happy effort; a happy venture; a happy omen.

Chymists have been more happy in finding experiments than the causes of them.

Boyle.

2. Experiencing the effect of favorable fortune; having the feeling arising from the consciousness of well- being or of enjoyment; enjoying good of any kind, as peace, tranquillity, comfort; contented; joyous; as, happy hours, happy thoughts.

Happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.

Ps. cxliv. 15.

The learned is happy Nature to explore,
The fool is happy that he knows no more.

Pope.

3. Dexterous; ready; apt; felicitous.

One gentleman is happy at a reply, another excels in a rejoinder.

Swift.

Happy family, a collection of animals of different and hostile propensities living peaceably together in one cage. Used ironically of conventional alliances of persons who are in fact mutually repugnant. — Happy-go-lucky, trusting to hap or luck; improvident; easy-going. "Happy- go-lucky carelessness." W. Black.

Hapuku
(||Ha*pu"ku) n. (Zoöl.) A large and valuable food fish (Polyprion prognathus) of New Zealand. It sometimes weighs one hundred pounds or more.

Haquebut
(Haque"but) n. See Hagbut.