joy in spades
- idiom
- Informal
:
alegría a raudales
- She found joy in spades when her grandchildren came to visit.
Examples
-
The children found joy in spades at the amusement park.
-
The festival brought joy in spades to the small town every summer.
-
After winning the award, the whole team was filled with joy in spades.
-
They experienced joy in spades during the festival.
-
After winning the award, the whole team was filled with joy in spades.
-
She found joy in spades when her grandchildren came to visit.
-
The children found joy in spades at the amusement park.
Synonyms
970
1.0
A feeling of pleasure and being satisfied
793
1.0
A strong feeling of great happiness
78
3.2
A complete feeling of great happiness and peace
45
6.8
A very strong feeling of happiness and excitement
34
1.0
A strong feeling of happiness and excitement
27
6.7
A feeling of strong, happy energy and excitement
18
5.5
A very happy and excited feeling after a big success
17
5.8
A strong, happy feeling of excitement
11
5.2
A strong feeling of happiness and excitement during a celebration
9
1.0
A feeling of being happy and pleased
6
2.8
Great joy and celebration after good news or success
3
7.9
A strong feeling of great joy often shown by loud shouts
1
2.0
A strong feeling of happiness and excitement
1
3.7
A feeling of complete happiness
1
6.5
A strong feeling of great joy that people show openly
1
3.0
A strong feeling of great happiness
A very strong feeling of deep happiness
A sudden strong burst of joy that people feel or show
A strong feeling of great joy after success
A strong feeling of happy excitement that makes you smile
A feeling of great happiness and pleasure
Great happiness and lively celebration with singing and dancing
A strong happiness that spreads to others and makes them smile
Antonyms
How Joyful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The intensifying sense 'in spades' (meaning 'to a great degree') is idiomatic and not predictable from the literal meanings of 'spades' (a digging tool or card suit) or the preposition 'in'. A B1 learner who knows the constituent words would therefore be unlikely to derive 'an abundance of' from the parts alone, so the expression is language-specific and opaque.
Etymology
The idiom joy in spades comes from the image of spades in old card games. One popular story says that getting many spades was a very strong hand, so having something 'in spades' meant having it in a big way, and joy in spades therefore means 'a very large amount of happiness'.