Adjacent Words

Delight definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DELIGHT, n.
1. A high degree of pleasure, or satisfaction of mind; joy.
His delight is in the law of the Lord. Psalms 1.
2. That which gives great pleasure; that which affords delight.
Titus was the delight of human kind.
I was daily his delight. Proverbs 8.
Delight is a more permanent pleasure than joy, and not dependent on sudden excitement.
DELIGHT, v.t.
1. To affect with great pleasure; to please highly; to give or afford high satisfaction or joy; as, a beautiful landscape delights the eye; harmony delights the ear; the good conduct of children, and especially their piety, delights their parents.
I will delight myself in thy statutes. Psalms 119.
2. To receive great pleasure in.
I delight to do thy will. Psa
40:8.
DELIGHT, v.i. To have or take great pleasure; to be greatly pleased or rejoiced; followed by in.
I delight in the law of God after the inward man. Romans 7.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a feeling of extreme pleasure or satisfaction; "his delight to see her was obvious to all" [syn: delight, delectation]
2: something or someone that provides a source of happiness; "a joy to behold"; "the pleasure of his company"; "the new car is a delight" [syn: joy, delight, pleasure] v
1: give pleasure to or be pleasing to; "These colors please the senses"; "a pleasing sensation" [syn: please, delight] [ant: displease]
2: take delight in; "he delights in his granddaughter" [syn: delight, enjoy, revel]
3: hold spellbound [syn: enchant, enrapture, transport, enthrall, ravish, enthral, delight] [ant: disenchant, disillusion]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Date: 13th century 1. a high degree of gratification ; joy; also extreme satisfaction 2. something that gives great pleasure <her performance was a delight> 3. archaic the power of affording pleasure II. verb Etymology: Middle English deliten, from Anglo-French deliter, from Latin delectare, frequentative of delicere to allure, from de- + lacere to allure Date: 13th century intransitive verb 1. to take great pleasure <delighted in playing the guitar> 2. to give keen enjoyment <a book certain to delight> transitive verb to give joy or satisfaction to • delighter noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v. & n. --v. 1 tr. (often foll. by with) please greatly (the gift delighted them; was delighted that you won; delighted with the result). 2 intr. (often foll. by in, or to + infin.) take great pleasure; be highly pleased (delighted in her success; was delighted to help). --n. 1 great pleasure. 2 something giving pleasure (her singing is a delight). Derivatives: delighted adj. delightedly adv. Etymology: ME f. OF delitier, delit, f. L delectare frequent. of delicere: alt. after light etc.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Delight De*light", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Delighted; p. pr. & vb. n. Delighting.] [OE. deliten, OF. delitier, deleitier, F. d['e]lecter, fr. L. delectare to entice away, to delight (sc. by attracting or alluring), intens. of delicere to allure, delight; de- + lacere to entice, allure; cf. laqueus a snare. Cf. Delectate, Delicate, Delicious, Dilettante, Elicit, Lace.] To give delight to; to affect with great pleasure; to please highly; as, a beautiful landscape delights the eye; harmony delights the ear. Inventions to delight the taste. --Shak. Delight our souls with talk of knightly deeds. --Tennyson.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Delight De*light", v. i. To have or take great delight or pleasure; to be greatly pleased or rejoiced; -- followed by an infinitive, or by in. Love delights in praises. --Shak. I delight to do thy will, O my God. --Ps. xl. 8.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Delight De*light", n. [OE. delit, OF. delit, deleit, fr. delitier, to delight. See Delight, v. t.] 1. A high degree of gratification of mind; a high- wrought state of pleasurable feeling; lively pleasure; extreme satisfaction; joy. Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. --Shak. A fool hath no delight in understanding. --Prov. xviii. 2. 2. That which gives great pleasure or delight. Heaven's last, best gift, my ever new delight. --Milton. 3. Licentious pleasure; lust. [Obs.] --Chaucer.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(delights, delighting, delighted) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. Delight is a feeling of very great pleasure. Throughout the house, the views are a constant source of surprise and delight... Andrew roared with delight when he heard Rachel's nickname for the baby... To my great delight, it worked perfectly. 2. If someone takes delight or takes a delight in something, they get a lot of pleasure from it. Haig took obvious delight in proving his critics wrong... PHRASE: V inflects, usu PHR in -ing/n 3. You can refer to someone or something that gives you great pleasure or enjoyment as a delight. Sampling the local cuisine is one of the delights of a holiday abroad. = joy N-COUNT: oft N of n/-ing, N to-inf [approval] 4. If something delights you, it gives you a lot of pleasure. She has created a style of music that has delighted audiences all over the world... VERB: V n 5. If you delight in something, you get a lot of pleasure from it. Generations of adults and children have delighted in the story... He delighted in sharing his love of birds with children. VERB: V in n/-ing, V in n/-ing

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

de-lit' (verb, chaphets, ratsah, sha`a`; sunedomai): "To delight" is most frequently expressed by chaphets, which means originally "to bend" (compare Job 40:17, "He moveth his tail"), hence, "to incline to," "take pleasure in." It is used of God's pleasure in His people (Nu 14:8; 2Sa 22:20; Ps 18:19, etc.), and in righteousness, etc. (Isa 66:4; Jer 9:24; Mic 7:18, etc.), also of man's delight in God and His will (Ps 40:8; 73:25; the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American), "There is none upon earth that I desire besides thee"), and in other objects (Ge 34:19; 1Sa 18:22; Es 2:14; Isa 66:3); sha`a`, "to stroke," "caress," "be fond of," occurs in Ps 94:19, "Thy comforts delight my soul"; Ps 119:16,47,70, "I will delight myself in thy statutes." Similarly, Paul says (Ro 7:22), "I delight (sunedomai) in (margin, the Revised Version (British and American) "Greek with") the law of God after the inward man." This is the only occurrence of the word in the New Testament.

"To delight one's self" (in the Lord) is represented chiefly by `anagh (Job 22:26; 27:10; Ps 37:4,11; Isa 58:14).

Delight (noun), chiefly chephets (1Sa 15:22; Ps 1:2; 16:3), ratson (Pr 11:1,20; 12,22; 15:8), sha`ashu`im (Ps 119:24,77,92,143,174; Pr 8:30,31). the Revised Version (British and American) has "delight" for "desire" (Ne 1:11; Ps 22:8; 51:16), for "observe," different reading (Pr 23:26), "no delight in" for "smell in" (Am 5:21), "delightest in me" for "favorest me" (Ps 41:11), "his delight shall be in" (m "Hebrew `scent' ") for "of quick understanding" (Isa 11:3).

The element of joy, of delight in God and His law and will, in the Hebrew religion is noteworthy as being something which we are apt to fall beneath even in the clearer light of Christianity.

W. L. Walker

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. Joy, gladness, delectation, satisfaction, charm, gratification, rapture, transport, ravishment, ecstasy, great pleasure. II. v. a. Enrapture, transport, ravish, enchant, charm, gratify, rejoice, please highly. III. v. n. Take delight, have great pleasure, rejoice.

Moby Thesaurus

a thing for, adore, affinity, allure, amuse, appreciate, aptitude, aptness, attract, be in heaven, be pleased, beam, beatification, beatitude, becharm, beguile, bent, bewitch, bewitchment, bias, blessedness, bliss, blissfulness, caper, captivate, caracole, carol, carry away, cast, charm, cheer, cheerfulness, chirp, chirrup, clap hands, cloud nine, conatus, conduciveness, contentment, convulse, crow, crow over, dance, delectate, delectation, delight in, diathesis, die with delight, disposition, divert, eagerness, ecstasy, ecstatics, elation, enchant, enchantment, enjoy, enjoyment, enliven, enrapture, enravish, entertain, enthrall, entrance, exaltation, excite, exhilarate, exhilaration, exuberance, exult, fascinate, feel happy, feeling for, felicity, fracture one, freak out, frisk, frolic, fruition, gaiety, gambol, gladden, gladness, glee, gloat, gloat over, glory, glory in, go into raptures, gratification, gratify, happify, happiness, heaven, high spirits, hilarity, imparadise, inclination, intoxication, jollity, joy, joyance, joyfulness, jubilate, kill, knock dead, knock out, laugh, leaning, liability, like, liking, lilt, loosen up, love, mirth, overhappiness, overjoyfulness, paradise, penchant, please, pleasure, predilection, predisposition, prejudice, probability, proclivity, proneness, propensity, purr, raise a laugh, raise a smile, rapture, ravish, ravishment, readiness, recreate, refresh, regale, rejoice, relax, relish, revel, revel in, rollick, romp, satisfaction, satisfy, savor, send, sensitivity to, seventh heaven, sing, skip, skip for joy, slay, smile, soft spot, solace, sunshine, susceptibility, take great satisfaction, tendency, thrill, tickle, tickle pink, titillate, transport, tread on air, triumph, tropism, turn, twist, unalloyed happiness, warp, weakness, whistle, willingness, wow