no joy
9
8.7
- idiom
- Informal
:
sin éxito
- After trying for hours to fix the car, he felt no joy from his efforts.
- take no joy
- bring me no joy
- find no joy
Examples
-
Being special brings no joy with it.
Fiction book (2001) -
I see no joy in their eyes.
Academic text (2004) -
At present, we feel no joy.
-
My life knows no joy.
-
You give me no joy.
-
I knew that his message to me that day in Charles Street could hold no joy.
Fiction book (2000) -
Believe me, it gave me no joy.
Fiction book (2000) -
There is no joy in the occasion because there is no one with whom to celebrate it.
Fiction book (1996) -
Sarah, though, could find no joy in her usual pleasures.
-
It gives me no joy to see you unhappy.
Synonyms
133
2.5
An action that will not help
1
9.9
To say that something failed or did not work
Not possible or allowed
Antonyms
How Successful
Surface Forms
Morphology
Literally 'no joy' is transparently 'no happiness' from the constituents, but the common idiomatic use meaning 'no success' or 'the attempt failed' is a metaphorical extension that is not fully predictable from the words alone. A B1 learner who knows 'no' and 'joy' might infer a negative outcome in context but would not reliably derive the specific idiomatic sense without prior exposure.
Etymology
No joy may come from wartime pilots who used the phrase on the radio when they could not see or find an enemy plane. So, no joy today is used to say there was 'no success' or that an attempt failed.