| Library / English Dictionary |
GLADNESS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Experiencing joy and pleasure
Synonyms:
gladfulness; gladness; gladsomeness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("gladness" is a kind of...):
happiness (emotions experienced when in a state of well-being)
Derivation:
glad (cheerful and bright)
glad (feeling happy appreciation)
glad (showing or causing joy and pleasure; especially made happy)
Context examples:
Sometimes they chanced upon other wolves, usually in pairs; but there was no friendliness of intercourse displayed on either side, no gladness at meeting, no desire to return to the pack-formation.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
He was conscious of a fierce wild thrill through his nerves and a throb of mad gladness at his heart, as his real human self burst for an instant the bonds of custom and of teaching which had held it so long.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Then, with the gladness which must be felt, nay, which he did not scruple to feel, having never believed Frank Churchill to be at all deserving Emma, was there so much fond solicitude, so much keen anxiety for her, that he could stay no longer.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
There must be no tears now—unless it may be that God will let them fall in gladness.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as they were unfolded to me, are among the earliest sensations I can remember.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Joy and gladness burst forth throughout the castle, the wedding was celebrated, and he was crowned king of the Golden Mountain.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
And in that moment he lived all the life of gladness of which she had told him, and the laughter and the song, and as the sun went out of the sky above him, as in his old age, he knew the memory of her was sweet.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
They were eyes that masked the soul with a thousand guises, and that sometimes opened, at rare moments, and allowed it to rush up as though it were about to fare forth nakedly into the world on some wonderful adventure,—eyes that could brood with the hopeless sombreness of leaden skies; that could snap and crackle points of fire like those which sparkle from a whirling sword; that could grow chill as an arctic landscape, and yet again, that could warm and soften and be all a-dance with love-lights, intense and masculine, luring and compelling, which at the same time fascinate and dominate women till they surrender in a gladness of joy and of relief and sacrifice.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
The passengers drew back with a sigh of gladness, which seemed to mock my own disappointment.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
They made many signs which I did not comprehend, but I saw that her presence diffused gladness through the cottage, dispelling their sorrow as the sun dissipates the morning mists.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
