merry smile
- noun
:
sonrisa alegre
- The children's faces lit up with a merry smile as they opened their presents on Christmas morning.
Examples
-
She could see the merry smile, feel the laughter of his eyes.
Fiction book (1992) -
Her merry smile brightened the room and made everyone feel welcome.
-
He greeted us with a merry smile, instantly lifting our spirits on that rainy day.
Synonyms
139
1.0
A broad smile showing the teeth when someone is happy or amused
47
1.0
A wide friendly movement of the mouth that shows happiness
4
1.0
A friendly expression on the face that shows real kindness
A warm happy expression with bright lively eyes
A bright warm look on someone's face that lights a room
A very bright smile that shows great happiness
A smile that shows great joy and means a lot to someone
A very large, wide smile that shows great happiness
A small, quiet mouth movement that shows a little happiness
Antonyms
How Merry
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a smile that expresses cheerfulness or joy' is directly derivable from combining 'merry' (joyful) with 'smile' (a facial expression), so a learner who knows the constituent words can infer the phrase. This simple adjective+noun collocation follows standard compositional patterns common across languages, making it immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner.
Etymology
The phrase merry smile links merry (a word for being bright and cheerful) and smile, making the picture of someone smiling as if at a small happy moment. That's why a merry smile means a smile that shows 'cheerfulness' or 'joy'.