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oy; cheering; cheery; contented; happy; joyful; lively; animated; willing. To entertain a cheerful disposition. Shak. The cheerful birds of sundry kind Do chant sweet music. Spenser. A cheerful confidence in the mercy of God. Macaulay. This general applause and cheerful shout. Shak.

In a cheerful manner, gladly.

Good spirits; a state of moderate joy or gayety; alacrity.

A cheerful readiness, willingness, or promptitude; joyous activity; briskness; sprightliness; as, the soldiers advanced with alacrity to meet the enemy. I have not that alacrity of spirit, Nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have. Shak.

Gay; cheerful; sprightly. [Obs.] Bacon.

Gay; merry; sprightly; joyous; glad; cheerful; as, a blithe spirit. The blithe sounds of festal music. Prescott. A daughter fair, So buxom, blithe, and debonair. Milton.

Gay; merry; frolicsome; cheerful; blithe. Be you blithe and bonny. Shak. Report speaks you a bonny monk, that would hear the matiSir W. Scott.

Sparkling with wit; lively; vivacious; shedding cheerfulness and joy around; cheerful; cheery. Be bright and jovial among your guests. Shak.

dispelling gloom or removing that which obscures and darkens; to shed light upon; to make cheerful; as, to brighten one's prospects. An ecstasy, which mothers only feel, Plays round my heart and brightens all my sorrow. Philips.

Cheerfulness; vivacity; liveliness; sprightliness; -- the opposite of Ant: heaviness; as, buoyancy of spirits.

Light-hearted; vivacious; cheerful; as, a buoyant disposition; buoyant spirits. -- Buoy"ant*ly, adv.

Cheerful or mirthful, as after good eating or drinking; also, wanton. [Scot. & Prov. Eng.]

Cheerful; sprightly; lively; merry. "The canty dame." Wordsworth [Scot. & Prov. Eng.] Contented with little, and canty with mair. Burns.

Free from care or anxiety. hence, cheerful; light-hearted. Spenser. Sleep she as sound as careless infancy. Shak.

To utter with a melodious voice; to sing. The cheerful birds . . . do chant sweet music. Spenser.

Gayety; mirth; cheerfulness; animation. I have not that alacrity of spirit, Nor cheer of mind, that I was wont to have. Shak.

Cheerfulness. [Obs.] There is no Christian duty that is not to be seasoned and set off with cheerishness. Milton.

Without joy, gladness, or comfort. -- Cheer"less*ly, adv. -- Cheer"less*ness, n. My cheerful day is turned to cheerles night. Spenser.

Gay; cheerful. [Obs.] Shak.

Cheerful; lively; gay; bright; pleasant; as, a cheery person. His cheery little study, where the sunshine glimmered so pleasantly. Hawthorne.