Search the Dictionary

; prosperous; delightful; skilful; successful; happily applied or expressed; appropriate. Felicitous words and images. M. Arnold. -- Fe*lic"i*tous*ly, adv. -- Fe*lic"i*tous*ness, n.

Not felicitous; unhappy; unfortunate; not fortunate or appropriate in application; not well said, expressed, or done; as, an infelicitous condition; an infelicitous remark; an infelicitous description; infelicitous words.

With address or dexterity; gracefully; felicitously; in a manner to success; with success. Formed by thy converse, happily to steer From grave to gay, from lively to severe. Pope.

Dexterous; ready; apt; felicitous. One gentleman is happy at a reply, another excels in a 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. --…

The state or quality of being infelicitous; unhappiness; misery; wretchedness; misfortune; want of suitableness or appropriateness. I. Watts. Whatever is the ignorance and infelicity of the present state, we were made wise and happy. Glanvill.

ly; a singer renders a passage of music with great effect; a painter renders a scene in a felicitous manner. He did render him the most unnatural That lived amongst men. Shak.

at; ungainly; as, splay shoulders. Sonwthing splay, something blunt-edged, unhandy, and infelicitous. M. Arnold.

Felicitous association of objects not usually connected, so as to produce a pleasant surprise; also. the power of readily combining objects in such a manner. The definition of wit is only this, that it is a propriety of thoughts and words; or, in other terms, thoughts and words elegantly adapted to the subject. Dryden.…