ˈmerry-making, vbl. n.
[f. merry a. + making vbl. n.]
The action of making merry; conviviality; also, an occasion of festivity, a convivial entertainment.
| 1714 Mandeville Fab. Bees (1725) I. 186 If a woman at a merry-making dresses in man's cloathes. 1779 F. Burney Diary 13 June, Her..gay, laughing face inspires an almost immediate wish of conversing and merry-making with her. 1819 Sporting Mag. IV. 209 A merry-making, on the death of a relation. 1830 Tennyson Poems 93 See! our friends are all forsaking The wine and the merry-making. 1833 H. Martineau Briery Creek v. 107 The Irish betake themselves to rebellion when stopped in their merry-makings. 1876 Green Stray Stud. 55 The tedious length of an English merry-making would be unintelligible to him [sc. an Italian]. |
| attrib. 1870 Morris Earthly Par. (1890) 310/1 We Twain Not oft again..Unto this merry-making place shall ride. |
So
ˈmerry-making ppl. a.| 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. vi, Such jolly, roystering, rollicking, merry-making blades. 1873 Symonds Grk. Poets iii. 94 First must merry-making men address the gods with holy songs. |