prosperity

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Financial success

Nouns

1. prosperity, welfare, well-being; affluence, wealth, success; thrift; good fortune, blessings, luck; sunshine; fair weather, fair wind; fat years, palmy days, halcyon days; boom, heyday; golden time, golden age; bed of roses, charmed life; lucky star; cornucopia, horn of plenty; fat of the land, milk and honey, good times; godsend, windfall, winning streak, manna from heaven; affluent society, American dream; Aladdin's cave. Informal, land-office business; lucky break, streak or run of luck, Lady Luck. Slang, fat city, high cotton. See money, chance.

2. rich person (see money); Midas touch.

Verbs

1. prosper, grow, multiply, thrive, flourish; be prosperous; go well, smoothly, or swimmingly; flower, blow, burgeon, blossom, bloom, fructify, bear fruit, pay off; fatten, batten; live high off the hog. Informal, look like a million dollars. Slang, clean up.

2. rise [in the world], get on in the world; climb the ladder of success; make one's way or fortune; feather one's nest; bear or lead a charmed life; bask in the sunshine; have a run of luck, come on; have good fortune, have one's ship come in; take a favorable turn; live off the fat of the land, live in clover; win out, make a strike, make a hit, strike it rich, coin or make money. Slang, make one's pile, luck out, have it made, hit the jackpot, clock a grip.

Adjectives — prosperous; thriving; fruitful; well-to-do, in the chips, rich, wealthy, affluent; fortunate, lucky, in luck, in clover, in the lap of luxury, on easy street, in the clear; auspicious, propitious, providential; in the black; palmy, halcyon. Slang, in the chips or money, sitting pretty, chopping high, in the bacon.

Phrases — every dog has his day; sitting on top of the world; born with a silver spoon in one's mouth; be fruitful and multiply; have money to burn; the rich would have to eat money, but luckily the poor provide food.

Quotations — It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God (Bible), Riches are for spending (Francis Bacon), The chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches (Adam Smith), To be clever enough to get all that money, one must be stupid enough to want it (G. K. Chesterton), The meek shall inherit the earth, but not the mineral rights ( J. P. Getty), If you are poor today, you will always be poor. Only the rich acquire riches (Martial), Wealth... and poverty;... the one is the parent of luxury and indolence, and the other of meanness and viciousness, and both of discontent (Plato).

Antonyms, see adversity.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [Good fortune]

Syn. accomplishment, victory, successfulness; see success 2 .

2. [Inflation]

Syn. expansion, exorbitance, affluence; see increase 1 .

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

success, growth, fortune, wealth, riches, affluence, boom times, *life of luxury, *easy street, plenty. An instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped.''— Calvin Coolidge.

ANT.: poverty, failure, bankruptcy

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun 1. A state of health, happiness, and prospering: weal1, welfare, well-being. See BETTER. 2. Steady good fortune or financial security: comfort, ease, prosperousness. Informal: easy street. Idioms: comfortable (or easy) circumstances, the good life. See RICH, THRIVE.