enjoyment
(ɛnˈdʒɔɪmənt)
Also 7–8 injoyment.
[f. enjoy v. + -ment.]
1. The action or state of deriving gratification from an object. Also, in weaker sense, the possession and use of something which affords pleasure or advantage. Const. of.
| 1553 Brende Q. Curtius 119 (R.) Why do you doubt for the enioyment of those thinges to breake out of this imprisonment? 1665 Manley Grotius' Low-C. Warres 378 Injoyment of many Lands. 1718 Lady M. W. Montague Lett. II. lvi. 86 The honest English squire..believes..that..there is no perfect enjoyment of this life out of Old England. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 212 He would protect the Established Church in the enjoyment of her legal rights. 1877 Sparrow Serm. xxiii. 312 The depth of the peace which flows from the enjoyment of his love. |
2. Gratification, pleasure; concr. something which gives pleasure.
| 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. v. iii. (1675) 305 He cuts them off, in the height of their Injoyments. 1732 Berkeley Alciphr. i. §9 Food, drink, sleep, and the like animal enjoyments being what all men like and love. 1842 Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life III. ix. 154 Such a life might have had its enjoyments even in London. 1874 M. A. Barker Stat. Life in N.Z. iv. 25 We..were only fit for the lowest phase of human enjoyment—warmth, food, and sleep. |