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HIGH SPIRITS
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A feeling of joy and pride
Synonyms:
elation; high spirits; lightness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("high spirits" is a kind of...):
joy; joyfulness; joyousness (the emotion of great happiness)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "high spirits"):
euphoria; euphory (a feeling of great (usually exaggerated) elation)
Context examples:
I set off, therefore, in high spirits, for I felt that I had done good work and was bringing back a fine budget of news for my companions.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Anne was now at hand to take up her own cause, and the sincerity of her manner being soon sufficient to convince him, where conviction was at least very agreeable, he had no farther scruples as to her being left to dine alone, though he still wanted her to join them in the evening, when the child might be at rest for the night, and kindly urged her to let him come and fetch her, but she was quite unpersuadable; and this being the case, she had ere long the pleasure of seeing them set off together in high spirits.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
They were good and kindly people, he forced himself to acknowledge, and in the moment of acknowledgment he qualified—good and kindly like all the bourgeoisie, with all the psychological cramp and intellectual futility of their kind, they bored him when they talked with him, their little superficial minds were so filled with emptiness; while the boisterous high spirits and the excessive energy of the younger people shocked him.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
She had hardly ever been in a state so nearly approaching high spirits in her life.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
However, it seemed to me that I had done a fairly good morning’s work, and I walked back in high spirits to Farnham.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I remarked that, once or twice when Mr. Quinion was talking, he looked at Mr. Murdstone sideways, as if to make sure of his not being displeased; and that once when Mr. Passnidge (the other gentleman) was in high spirits, he trod upon his foot, and gave him a secret caution with his eyes, to observe Mr. Murdstone, who was sitting stern and silent.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
But as high spirits and the love of fun were the causes of these pranks, he always managed to save himself by frank confession, honorable atonement, or the irresistible power of persuasion which he possessed in perfection.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Anne had gone unhappy to school, grieving for the loss of a mother whom she had dearly loved, feeling her separation from home, and suffering as a girl of fourteen, of strong sensibility and not high spirits, must suffer at such a time; and Miss Hamilton, three years older than herself, but still from the want of near relations and a settled home, remaining another year at school, had been useful and good to her in a way which had considerably lessened her misery, and could never be remembered with indifference.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
You have, undoubtedly; and there are situations in which very high spirits would denote insensibility.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
If anyone had told me, then, that all this was a brilliant game, played for the excitement of the moment, for the employment of high spirits, in the thoughtless love of superiority, in a mere wasteful careless course of winning what was worthless to him, and next minute thrown away—I say, if anyone had told me such a lie that night, I wonder in what manner of receiving it my indignation would have found a vent!
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
