mirth

«mirth» in Mova's school dictionary: Laughter, fun and great happiness, especially among a… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (mirth – uncountable)

meaning for a pupil

Laughter, fun and great happiness, especially among a group of people. tree →

sense in the lessons

A slightly old, literary word. In The Wind in the Willows the banquet and the Christmas carols at Mole End are full of mirth; in Alice the Hatter's tea party is anything but. Stories say «roars of mirth», «shaking with mirth». Today in speech we would say «laughter» or «fun».

examples

• The clown's tricks filled the room with mirth. tree →
• The children shook with mirth at Dad's joke. tree →
• There was much mirth and merriment at the feast. tree →
• His face was red with mirth. tree →
• The field-mice sang carols, and there was great mirth at Mole End. tree →
• Her mirth turned to tears when the puppy ran away. tree →
• But now no merry song or noise of mirth was heard from it. tree →

note

Uncountable: no «a mirth». Adjective: mirthful; «mirthless» means without joy («a mirthless laugh»).

In the corpora

• The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
• There is a crying in the streets amidst the wine; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.
• Even in laughter the heart acheth; and the end of mirth is heaviness.
• I said of laughter: 'It is mad'; and of mirth: 'What doth it accomplish?'
• The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «mirth» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.