overjoy

English

Etymology

From over- +‎ joy.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɔɪ

Verb

overjoy (third-person singular simple present overjoys, present participle overjoying, simple past and past participle overjoyed)

1. (transitive) To give great joy, delight or pleasure to.

   The prospect of writing three exams in a row without a break does not overjoy me.

   • 1594, Christopher Marlow[e], The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     This salutation ouerioyes my heart.

   • c. 1612–1615?, John Fletcher, Francis Beaumont, revised by Philip Massinger, “Loves Cure or, The Martial Maid”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act V, scene ii, page 143:

     In overjoying me, you are grown sad;

   • 1711, Alexander Pope, Letter to Henry Cromwell dated 25 June, 1711, in Mr. Pope’s Literary Correspondence, London: E. Curll, 1735, Volume 2, p. 10,^[1]

     If my Letter pleas’d you, your’s overjoy’d me;

2. (transitive, rare) To give too much joy to.
   • 1898, Thomas Hardy, “To an Orphan Child”, in Wessex Poems and Other Verses‎^[2], New York and London: Harper, page 163:

     Ah, child, thou art but half thy darling mother’s;
     Hers couldst thou wholly be,
     My light in thee would outglow all in others;
     She would relive to me.
     But niggard Nature’s trick of birth
     Bars, lest she overjoy,
     Renewal of the loved on earth
     Save with alloy.

3. (intransitive, obsolete) To take too much pleasure (in something).
   • 1598, John Wilbye, The First Set of English Madrigals, London: Thomas Este, Madrigal ,^[3]

     Your deeds my hart surchargd with ouerioying:

   • 1618, Joseph Hall, Contemplations upon the Principall Passages of the Holy Story‎^[4], volume 4, London: Henry Fetherstone, page 42:

     it is hard not to ouer-ioy in a sudden prosperitie, and, to vse happinesse is no lesse difficult, then to forbeare it

   • 1685, Thomas Manton, “A Description of the True Circumcision” in Several Discourses Tending to Promote Peace and Holiness among Christians, London: Jonathan Robinson, p. 113,^[5]

     That he doth not over-joy in worldly Comforts, nor over-grieve for worldly Losses.

Derived terms

• overjoyed

Noun

overjoy

1. Very great joy.

   Synonym: ecstasy

   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     to salute my king / With ruder terms, such as my wit affords / And over-joy of heart doth minister

   • a. 1631, John Donne, Letter to Robert Karre in Letters to Severall Persons of Honour, London: Richard Marriot, 1651, p. 299,^[6]

     I beginne to bee past hope of dying: And I feele that a little ragge of Monte Magor, which I read last time I was in your Chamber, hath wrought prophetically upon mee, which is, that Death came so fast towards mee, that the over-joy of that recovered mee.

   • 1835, William Wordsworth, “The Russian Fugitive” in Yarrow Revisited, and Other Poems, London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman, p. 143,^[7]

     Amazement rose to pain, / and over-joy produced a fear / Of something void and vain,

   • 1975, Jesse Stuart, “No Warning from the Wind”, in The World of Jesse Stuart: Selected Poems,‎^[8], New York: McGraw-Hill, page 158:

     The katydids express their overjoy / Down in knee-high maturing August grasses;

2. Excessive joy.
   • 1963, B. A. Saletore, Ancient Indian Political Thought and Institutions‎^[9], Asia Publishing House, page 318:

     Restraint of the organs of sense, on which success in study and discipline depends, can be enforced by abandoning lust, anger, greed, vanity (māna), haughtiness (mada) and overjoy (harṣa).

   • 1991, Robert F. Morneau, Mantras from a Poet: Jessica Powers‎^[10], Kansas City: Sheed & Ward, page 5:

     The knowledge that some are deprived tempers overjoy or overdesire.

   • 2006, Zhi Gang Sha, chapter 6, in Soul Mind Body Medicine‎^[11], Novato, CA: New World Library, page 158:

     The emotional extremes of overexcitement, overjoy, depression, and anxiety are all blockages in the Message Center.