pleasure

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Feeling of enjoyment

Nouns

1. pleasure, enjoyment, gratification; voluptuousness, sensuality; luxuriousness; gluttony; titillation, gusto; creature comforts, comfort, ease, [lap of] luxury; purple and fine linen; bed of down or roses, life of Riley; velvet, clover; treat, music to one's ears; refreshment, feast, cakes and ale; amusement; fleshpots, epicureanism, sybaritism, hedonism. See content, feeling.

2. (contentment) delectation; relish, zest; satisfaction, contentment, complacency; well-being; good, snugness, comfort, cushion, sans souci, peace of mind.

3. (great pleasure) joy, gladness, delight, euphoria; cheerfulness; happiness, felicity, bliss; beatitude, beatification; enchantment, transport, rapture, ravishment, ecstasy; summum bonum; heaven; unalloyed happiness; Schadenfreude. Informal, one's cup of tea, forbidden fruit. Slang, bang, thrills, kicks, charge, jollies.

4. (time of happiness) honeymoon, palmy or halcyon days; golden age or time; Arcadia, Eden, Utopia, happy valley, time of one's life; prime, heyday. Slang, doll city, fat city.

5. (quality of giving pleasure) pleasurableness, pleasantness, agreeableness, delectability; sunny or bright side.

6. (person who seeks or gives pleasure) playboy, playgirl, voluptuary, sensualist, pleasure seeker, sybarite, epicure[an], hedonist; Doctor Feelgood. Slang, good-time Charlie or girl, sport, cutup.

Verbs

1. feel pleasure, be pleased, take pleasure in; revel, rejoice, or delight in, like, love; enjoy oneself, give oneself up to; take to, take a fancy to; enjoy, relish, luxuriate in, riot in, bask in, swim in, wallow in; thrive or feast on; light up; gloat over, smack one's lips; be in clover, live on the fat of the land, walk on air, live in comfort, bask in the sunshine. Informal, live high off the hog; take the gravy train. Slang, have a ball, go into orbit; dig, get off (on), get a kick (from), lick one's chops, get one's jollies.

2. cause, give, or afford pleasure; please, charm, delight, beguile, enchant, entrance, enrapture, enthrall, transport, bewitch; [en]ravish; bless, beatify; satisfy, gratify; slake, satiate, quench; indulge, humor, flatter, tickle [the palate], regale, refresh; enliven; treat; amuse; strike or tickle one's fancy; warm the cockles of the heart; do one's heart good, do one good; attract, allure, stimulate, interest; thrill. Informal, hit the spot, tickle pink. Slang, send; give a kick, bang, or charge, blow one's mind.

Adjectives

1. pleased, glad[some]; pleased as Punch; happy as a king, as a lark, or as the day is long; thrice blest; in clover, in paradise, in raptures, on top of the world; overjoyed, entranced, etc.; ecstatic, beatific; unalloyed, cloudless. Slang, on cloud nine.

2. pleasing, pleasant, pleasurable; agreeable; grateful, gratifying, welcome [as the flowers in May], zaftig; to one's taste or liking, after one's own heart; sweet, delectable, nice, dainty; palatable; cozy, snug; sumptuous, sensuous, luxurious, voluptuous; empyrean, elysian, heavenly; palmy, halcyon; simpatico. Informal, up or down one's alley. Slang, scrumptious, hunky-dory, ducky.

Adverbs — with pleasure; happily, delightedly, etc.

Phrases — a good time was had by all.

Quotations — I never yet met a man that I didn't like (Will Rogers), I don't care anything about reasons, but I know what I like (Henry James), The art of pleasing consists in being pleased (James Hazlitt), Pleasure is nothing else but the intermission of pain (John Selden), Pleasure is a thief to business (Daniel Defoe), Great lords have their pleasures, but the people have fun (Montesquieu), One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other (Jane Austen), All the things I really like to do are either illegal, immoral, or fattening (Alexander Woollcott), I seek the utmost pleasure and the least pain (Plautus).

Antonyms, see pain, asceticism.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [Enjoyment]

Syn. delight, enjoyment, happiness, joy, contentment, satisfaction, gratification, fulfillment, bliss, felicity, rapture, ease, comfort, gladness, delectation, relish, kicks*; see also happiness 2 , satisfaction 2 .

2. [Will]

Syn. want, preference, wish; see deSire 1 .

3. [Amusement]

Syn. hobby, game, diversion; see entertainment 1 , 2 , fun .

4. [Gratification]

Syn. revelry, self-indulgence, gluttony; see indulgence 3 .

Syn.- pleasure is the general term for an agreeable feeling of satisfaction, ranging from a quiet sense of gratification to a positive sense of happiness; delight implies a high degree of obvious pleasure, openly and enthusiastically expressed [ a child's delight with a New toy ] ; joy describes a keenly felt, exuberant, often demonstrative happiness [ their joy at his safe return ] ; enjoyment suggests a somewhat more quiet feeling of satisfaction with that which pleases [ our enjoyment of the recital ]

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

enjoyment, delight, happiness, contentment, elation, euphoria, amusement, joy, bliss, gratification, good feeling.

ANT.: displeasure, pain, misery

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) I noun 1. A feeling of extreme gratification aroused by something good or desired: delectation, delight, enjoyment, joy. See HAPPY, LIKE. 2. The condition of responding pleasurably to something: delectation, enjoyment. See PAIN. 3. A desire for a particular thing or activity: fancy, liking, mind, will. See LIKE. 4. Unrestricted freedom to choose: discretion, will. See FREE. II verb 1. To give great or keen pleasure to: cheer, delight, enchant, gladden, gratify, overjoy, please, tickle. Archaic: joy. See HAPPY, LIKE. 2. To feel or take joy or pleasure: delight, exult, joy, rejoice. See HAPPY.