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Chambers (1908)

Merry

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This edition’s origin note

[A.S. merg, from the Celtic, as in Gael. and Ir. mear, merry, Gael. mir, to sport.]

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Merry, mer′i, adj. sportive: cheerful: noisily gay: causing laughter: lively.—adv. Merr′ily.—ns. Merr′imake, Merr′y-make (Spens.), a meeting for making merry, a festival, mirth.—v.i. to make merry, to feast.—ns. Merr′iment, Merr′iness, gaiety with laughter and noise: mirth: hilarity; Merr′y-an′drew, one who makes sport for others: a buffoon: one who goes round with a mountebank or a quack doctor—also Merr′yman; Merr′y-go-round, a revolving ring of hobby-horses, &c., on which children ride round at fairs, &c.; Merr′y-mak′ing, a merry entertainment, a festival; Merr′y-thought, the forked bone of a fowl's breast, which two persons pull at in play, the one who breaks off the longer part being thought likely to be first married. [A.S. merg, from the Celtic, as in Gael. and Ir. mear, merry, Gael. mir, to sport.]

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  • Historical scholarship from 1908; not current consensus or editorial verification.
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Edition, rights and traceability

Chambers’s Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language
Thomas Davidson (editor)
1908

Public-domain-US ↗ · United States

Publisher marks these historical texts public domain in the USA. Transformed book text excludes Gutenberg branding; source attribution is a bibliographic acknowledgment. No non-US public-domain determination is made.

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