mirthful, a.
(ˈmɜːθfʊl)
[f. mirth n. + -ful.]
1. a. Of persons, their dispositions, moods, etc.: Full of mirth; joyous, gladsome, hilarious.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 10611 Þar bileft þat mirthful mai, Drightin hir ledd in al hir wai. c 1475 Rauf Coilȝear 357 Befoir that mirthfull man menstrallis playis. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems x. 36 Be myrthfull now, at all ȝour mycht, For passit is ȝour dully nycht. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 14 Brasse buttons, pieces of Pewter, spur-rowels, or what else the mirthfull Saylers exchange. 1726 Pope Odyss. xx. 415 A mirthful frenzy seized the fated croud. a 1745 Broome tr. Anacreon's Odes liv. 8 Hence, hoary Age!—I now am young, And dance the mirthful Youths among. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 45 Each mirthful lout The ale-house seeks. 1940 W. Faulkner Hamlet iv. i. 279 His constant expression of incorrigible and mirthful disbelief had left him now. |
b. Of places, seasons, etc.: Characterized by mirth or rejoicing. Of sounds or utterances: Expressive of mirth, joyous, merry.
| c 1450 Holland Howlat 998 In mirthfull moneth of May. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xlviii. 163 Thane all the birdis song with voce on hicht, Quhois mirthfull soun wes mervelus to heir. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 198 This Ceremony..to Libidinists may seeme mirthfull and charitable. 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. iii. 847 But most his Reverence loved a mirthful jest. 1834 Lytton Pompeii iii. ii, There is nothing very mirthful in your strain. 1846 Keble Lyra Innoc. (1873) 131 Mirthful bower or hall. |
2. Of things: Affording mirth, amusing.
| 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, v. vii. 43 And now what rests, but that we spend the time With stately Triumphes, mirthfull Comicke shewes. 1877 Athenæum 13 Oct. 475/2 The piece..is one of the most mirthful and original that has, during late years, been seen on the stage. |