Link Centre Dictionary

delight

de·light

UK/dəˈlaɪt/ US/dɪˈlaɪt/ fairly common
noun (2) verb (3)

noun

1.

a feeling of extreme pleasure or satisfaction

  • “his delight to see her was obvious to all”
Synonyms
2.

something or someone that provides pleasure; a source of happiness

  • “a joy to behold”
  • “the pleasure of his company”
  • “the new car is a delight”
Synonyms

verb

1.

give pleasure to or be pleasing to

  • “These colors please the senses”
  • “a pleasing sensation”
Synonyms
Antonyms
2.

take delight in

  • “he delights in his granddaughter”
Synonyms
3.

Origin

Attested from the 13th century, from Middle English delite, from Old French deleiter, deliter, from Latin dēlectāre (“to delight, please”), frequentative of dēlicere (“to allure, entice”), from dē- (“away”) + laciō (“to lure, to deceive”), from Proto-Italic *lakjō (“to draw, pull”), of unknown ultimate origin. Doublet of delect. Related with delectation, delicate, delicious and dilettante. The modern unetymological spelling (instead of expected delite) is influenced by light and other words ending in -ight, such as might, bright, etc. The -gh- may also be an attempt to represent the Latin -c-; compare obsolete indight for indict.

Phrases

  • afternoon delight
  • Buddha's delight
  • Cupid's delight
  • delight in
  • devil's delight
  • duper's delight
  • duping delight
  • gardener's delight
  • Heart's Delight
  • idiot's delight

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Related verbs

Entails

Causes

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.