English

Noun

enjoyment ‎(countable and uncountable, plural enjoyments)

1. (uncountable) The condition of enjoying anything.

   Few activities better the enjoyment of a hearty meal eaten in good company.‎

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 5, in The Celebrity:

     Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.

   • ?, Harry S. Truman, Fifth State of the Union Address:

     Our Republic continues to increase in the enjoyment of freedom within its borders, and to offer strength and encouragement to all those who love freedom throughout the world.

2. (uncountable) An enjoyable state of mind.
   • 1833, John Stuart Mill, Remarks on Bentham's Philosophy:

     All acts suppose certain dispositions, and habits of mind and heart, which may be in themselves states of enjoyment or of wretchedness, and which must be fruitful in other consequences besides those particular acts.

3. (countable) An activity that gives pleasure.
   • 1885, John Ormsby, Don Quixote, translation of original by Miguel de Cervantes, published 1605, 1615:

     Is it, haply, an idle occupation, or is the time ill-spent that is spent in roaming the world in quest, not of its enjoyments, but of those arduous toils whereby the good mount upwards to the abodes of everlasting life?

4. (law) The exercise of a legal right.

Related terms

• amusement
• joy
• happiness
• hedonism

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