joy

Less common meanings

4. 4
   successnouncolloquialUKuncountable

   Luck or success; a positive outcome, especially after some effort.

   We searched three stores for the part but had no joy.

   After weeks of calls, she finally had some joy with the insurance company.

   UsageMostly in questions and negatives: no joy, any joy with the car?

   Similarluck, success

5. 5
   feel gladverbliteraryintransitive

   To feel great happiness; to rejoice.

   I joy to see you wear around your neck the holy relic I bestowed on you;—but what Moorish charmlet is that you wear beside it?

   1829, Walter Scott, Anne of Geierstein

   Similarrejoice, exult, delight, glory

   Oppositegrieve, mourn, lament

   Note

   The intransitive verb appears in older prose with a few telling constructions. Walter Scott's Anne of Geierstein (1829) follows it with an infinitive: "I joy to see you wear around your neck the holy relic." Burton's Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (1885) pairs it with its own noun: "he joyed with exceeding joy." The past tense is regular: joyed. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

   • Walter Scott wrote Anne of Geierstein, first published in 1829. walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk
   • The novel contains the quoted words, illustrating joy followed by an infinitive. Queen Margaret speaks them to Arthur. gutenberg.org
   • Burton's translation of The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night began publication in 1885. en.wikisource.org
   • Burton's translation contains the quoted phrase, pairing the verb with the noun joy; it occurs in the Portress's narrative. gutenberg.org
   • The regular past tense of joy is joyed. en.wiktionary.org
6. 6
   nounobsoleteuncountable

   An outward sign or display of happiness; gaiety, merriment, and festivity.

   The roofs with joy resound.

   1717, John Dryden [et al.], Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books

   Such ioy made Vna, when her knight she found;

   1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene

   Similarjollity

   Note

   In older English the word could name something made and heard rather than felt. Spenser writes "Such joy made Una, when her knight she found," and Dryden's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book XII (1700), has "The roofs with joy resound": cheering and festivity at a wedding feast. Modern English keeps the inner feeling and leaves the outward display to merriment and rejoicing, so this obsolete use belongs only in deliberately old-fashioned verse. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • Spenser wrote the quoted line, illustrating joy as an outward expression of happiness. gutenberg.org
   • Dryden's translation of Ovid contains the quoted words. gutenberg.org
   • The quoted passage is from Dryden's translation of Book XII, published in Fables Ancient and Modern in 1700. It predates the collective Metamorphoses edition of 1717. en.wikisource.org
   • Nestor describes a wedding feast held in a cave. gutenberg.org
7. 7
   verbarchaictransitive

   To enjoy or take pleasure in something.

   I haue my wish, in that I ioy thy sight,

   1594, Christopher Marlow[e], The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second

   Is this the Love, is this the recompence Of mine to thee, ingrateful Eve, exprest Immutable when thou wert lost, not I, Who might have liv’d and joyd immortal bliss, Yet willingly chose rather Death with thee:

   1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost

   Note

   Where the modern verb would be enjoy, poets from Marlowe to Milton used the shorter form, with the thing enjoyed as its direct object. Marlowe writes "in that I joy thy sight," Spenser "she never joyed day," and Milton "joyd immortal bliss" in Paradise Lost. The object is what is had or relished, not a person made glad, which sets it apart from the causative "gladden" verb. It suits archaic effect only. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

   • Joy historically had a transitive sense meaning enjoy, with the thing enjoyed as its object. en.wiktionary.org
   • Marlowe wrote the quoted words in Edward the Second; King Edward speaks them to Gaveston. gutenberg.org
   • Spenser wrote the quoted words, with modernized spelling, in The Faerie Queene, Book IV, Canto I. en.wikisource.org
   • Milton wrote joyd immortal bliss in Paradise Lost; Adam speaks the words in Book IX. milton.host.dartmouth.edu
   • The enjoy sense differs from the causative sense meaning gladden. en.wiktionary.org
8. 8
   verbobsoletetransitive

   To gladden someone; to make them joyful or fill them with delight.

   Yet neither pleasure’s art can joy my spirits, Nor yet the other’s distance comfort me.

   c. 1607, William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?]

   Note

   Here the verb works outward: joy takes as its object the person or spirit being made glad, a causative use now obsolete. In Pericles, written around 1607–1608, the title character pairs it with comfort: "neither pleasure's art can joy my spirits." Where the "rejoice" sense has its subject feeling the gladness, this one has its subject causing it. Anyone reaching for the idea today would say gladden or delight. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

   • Joy had a causative transitive sense meaning to make someone joyful. en.wiktionary.org
   • The quoted passage was written around 1607–1608. en.wikipedia.org
   • The passage occurs in Pericles, Act I, scene ii. The first two acts are generally attributed to Shakespeare's collaborator George Wilkins, so attributing these particular words unequivocally to Shakespeare is misleading. rsc.org.uk
   • The quotation is accurate and pairs joy with comfort; its speaker is Pericles. folger.edu
   • The intransitive rejoice sense describes the subject feeling joy. en.wiktionary.org
9. 9
   verbobsoletetransitive

   To give joy to someone; to congratulate them.

   Evil like Us they shun, and covet Good; Abhor the Poison, and receive the Food. Like Us they love or hate: like Us they know, To joy the Friend, or grapple with the Foe.

   1709, Mat[thew] Prior, Poems on Several Occasions

   Note

   A verb of courtesy with its own pattern: joy someone of something, meaning to wish them joy of it. In Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (1700), friends "joy us of our Conquest, early won," and Matthew Prior sets "to joy the Friend" against grappling with the foe. Congratulate someone on does this job now; the old form is obsolete. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • The construction 'joy someone of something' means to congratulate someone or wish them joy of it. gutenberg.org
   • Dryden's Palamon and Arcite was first published in 1700. gutenberg.org
   • The quoted words occur in Palamon and Arcite, describing friends congratulating someone. en.wiktionary.org
   • Matthew Prior contrasts 'to joy the Friend' with grappling with the foe. www2.unicamp.br