joy incarnate
- noun
:
alegría encarnada
- She was joy incarnate as she danced through the room, lighting up everyone's spirits.
Examples
-
When he smiles, he truly embodies joy incarnate.
-
Whenever he arrives, it feels like joy incarnate has entered the building.
-
His laughter made him seem like joy incarnate during the festivities.
-
She is joy incarnate!
-
His laughter made him seem like joy incarnate during the festivities.
-
She was joy incarnate as she danced through the room, lighting up everyone's spirits.
-
Whenever he arrives, it feels like joy incarnate has entered the building.
Synonyms
155
1.0
A person or thing that brings happiness to others
7
3.2
A person who makes others feel happy
A person who looks very happy and makes others feel glad
Antonyms
How Joyful
1
4.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a person who perfectly embodies joy' is directly and compositionally derived from 'joy' (the emotion) + 'incarnate' (embodied or made flesh). The noun phrase pattern 'X incarnate' is a productive, transparent formation in English (and has clear parallels in other languages), so a learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the overall meaning.
Etymology
Joy incarnate paints a picture of joy becoming a person. Incarnate means 'in the flesh', so the image helps explain why the phrase refers to someone who seems to be joy itself.