HIGH SPIRITS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does high spirits mean? 

• HIGH SPIRITS (noun)
  The noun HIGH SPIRITS has 1 sense:

1. a feeling of joy and pride

  Familiarity information: HIGH SPIRITS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HIGH SPIRITS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A feeling of joy and pride

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

elation; high spirits; lightness

Hypernyms ("high spirits" is a kind of...):

joy; joyfulness; joyousness (the emotion of great happiness)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "high spirits"):

euphoria; euphory (a feeling of great (usually exaggerated) elation)

 Context examples 

“I tell you what, Steerforth,” said I, “if your high spirits will listen to me—”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She was in high spirits, and surrounded by those who were giving all the support of their own bad sense to her too lively mind.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

All those things should be allowed for in youth and high spirits.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

They were all in high spirits and good humour, eager to be happy, and determined to submit to the greatest inconveniences and hardships rather than be otherwise.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

The young detective was in high spirits at his success.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was in high spirits; as ready to talk and laugh as ever, and seemed delighted to speak of his former visit, and recur to old stories: and he was not without agitation.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

They agreed to say nothing of what they had learned, and went back to their rooms in high spirits.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

When I saw that her high spirits had failed, I at once took advantage of her reaction to make a diagnosis.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

When the parting came he affected high spirits, to conceal certain inconvenient emotions which seemed inclined to assert themselves.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when in high spirits.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)