overjoy, v.
(əʊvəˈdʒɔɪ)
[over- 1 (c), 25, 27, 21.]
† 1. To rejoice over (rendering L. supergaudēre).
| 1382 Wyclif Ps. xxxiv. [xxxv.] 19 Ouerioȝe not to me that enemyen to me wickeli [Vulg. Non supergaudeant mihi]. |
2. trans. To fill with extreme joy; to transport with joy or gladness. (Now chiefly in pa. pple.)
| 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. xxiii. 1 Prosperitie maketh many so drunken, that they..overjoy themselves. 1678 Shadwell Timon ii. Wks. 1720 II. 320 You over-joy me with your presence! 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 527 I..should be overjoyed to lend him a helping hand. 1844 Dickens Mart. Chuz. xii, I..have been perfectly charmed and overjoyed to-day, to find you just the same as ever. |
b. intr. To rejoice too much.
| 1720 Boston Fourf. State (1797) 208 We are apt to overjoy. |
† 3. To overcome or overwhelm with joy. Obs.
| 1631 G. Webbe Quietn. (1657) 32 We shall..be so far master over our passions as not to overjoy our grief, nor overgrieve our joyes. |
Hence overˈjoyed ppl. a., whence overˈjoyedness.
| 1634 B. Jonson Love's Welc. Bolsover, The overjoyed master of the house. 1647 W. Browne Polex. v. 4 His overjoyednesse, his transports, and extasies, at the sight of that beauty. 1720 De Foe Capt. Singleton xiii. (1840) 223 The poor overjoyed men were in haste to go back. |