pleasure
/ˈplɛʒə
/noun [mass noun]
1A feeling of happy satisfaction and enjoyment: she smiled with pleasure at being praised...
- Perhaps if he had been more concerned with self-advancement he might not have fallen into obscurity - but would he then have produced such happy music for our pleasure?
- Everyone present expressed satisfaction, approval, pleasure and delight at being in attendance.
- There was no uncertainty, no wavering, no hesitation, nor was there any mirth, any pleasure, any satisfaction.
Synonyms
happiness, delight, joy, gladness, rapture, glee, satisfaction, gratification, fulfilment, contentment, contentedness, enjoyment, amusement
humorous delectation
1.1Enjoyment and entertainment, as opposed to necessity: she had not travelled for pleasure for a long time...
- Some parts of the building are for entertainment, pleasure, and relaxation; others for work and for meeting outsiders.
- Glasgow has become a place of leisure, pleasure and entertainment.
- There's a problem here, an interesting one if one is concerned about reading as an act of pleasure as opposed to literature as a field of scholarship.
Synonyms
enjoyment, fun, entertainment, amusement, diversion, recreation, leisure, relaxation
informal jollies
British informal beer and skittles
1.2 [count noun] An event or activity from which one derives enjoyment: the car makes driving in the city a pleasure...
- I resist the view that the pleasures of fiction derive from its purely thought-experimental aspects.
- It is undoubtedly true that the pleasures of smoking are derived from the actions of nicotine on the central nervous system.
- His own interest in food lay in the pleasures to be derived from it.
Synonyms
joy, delight, source of pleasure, enjoyment, amusement, diversion, recreation, pastime, divertissement;
treat, thrill
1.3Sensual gratification: the touch of his fingers gave her such pleasure...
- The pain receded, the feeling of sensual pleasure slid away from her.
- I'm quite disappointed in myself; I expected I'd sneak a smoke here in New York, just for the sheer sensual pleasure of it.
- There's a predictable but effective sensual pleasure here.
Synonyms
sensual gratification, hedonism, indulgence, self-indulgence, self-gratification, lack of self-restraint, lotus-eating
rare sybaritism
adjective [attributive]
Used or intended for entertainment rather than business: pleasure boats...
- This is why Taiwan is staking a claim by moving to a higher end product and allowing China to soak up the less prestigious and demanding pleasure boat business.
- The pleasure business is clearly a successful one.
- Southend Airport today launched a major campaign to revive short-haul business and pleasure flights to Europe.
verb [with object]
1Give sexual enjoyment or satisfaction to: tell me what will pleasure you...
- It is a wonderful, and natural, way of releasing sexual tension, and pleasuring one's self.
- The small motel room echoed with her moans of satisfaction and his sighs of pleasuring her.
- Which newsreader was fired by her network telly bosses after security video managed to catch her orally pleasuring a lucky pilot on the station's roof top helicopter pad?
1.1 [no object] (pleasure in) Derive enjoyment from: risky verbal exchanges that the pair might pleasure in...
- They are a kind of pleasuring in the language.
- My dear, I used to think I was serving humanity and I pleasured in the thought.
Phrases
at Her (or His) Majesty's pleasure
at someone's pleasure
have the pleasure of something (or of doing something)
my pleasure
take pleasure in
what's your pleasure?
with pleasure
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French plaisir 'to please' (used as a noun). The second syllable was altered under the influence of abstract nouns ending in -ure, such as measure.