Mawson, C.O.S., ed. (1870–1938). Roget’s International Thesaurus. 1922.
Class VI. Words Relating to the Sentient and Moral PowersSection II. Personal Affections
1. Passive Affections
840. Amusement.
FUN, frolic, merriment, jollity, joviality, jovialness; heyday; laughter [See Rejoicing]; jocosity, jocoseness; drollery, buffoonery, tomfoolery; mummery, mumming, masquing, pageant; pleasantry; wit [See Wit]; quip, quirk.
PLAY; game, game of romps; gambol, romp, prank, antic, frisk, rig [obs. or dial.], lark [colloq.], spree, skylarking, vagary, monkey trick, fredaine [F.], escapade, échappée [F.], bout, espiéglerie [F.]; practical joke (ridicule) [See Ridicule].
[DANCE STEPS] gambade [F.], gambado, pas [F.]; pigeonwing, heel-and-toe, buck-and-wing, shuffle, double shuffle; chassé [F.], coupée [F.], grapevine, &c.
[DANCES] dance, hop [colloq.], stag dance, shindig [slang, U. S.]; ball; bal, bal masqué, bal costumé [all F.], masquerade, masquerade ball, cornwallis [U. S.]; mistletoe-bough dance; Dance of Death, danse macabre [F.]; interpretative dance, step dance, sand dance, pas seul [F.], skirt dance, folk dance; Morisco or morice [obs.], morris dance, saraband, fandango, bolero, tarantella, boutade, gavot or gavotte, minuet, allemande [F.], rigadoon, fling, Highland fling, Highland schottische, strathspey, reel, jig, hornpipe, sword dance, breakdown, cakewalk; kantikoy, snake dance; country dance, Scotch reel, Virginia reel, Sir Roger de Coverley, Portland fancy; ballet (drama) [See The Drama]; ragtime [colloq.] (music) [See Music]; jazz [slang]; nautch [India].
SQUARE DANCE, quadrille, Lancers, cotillion or cotillon [F.], German.
ROUND DANCE, waltz, valse [F.], polka, mazurka, galop, gallopade or galopade, schottische, one-step, two-step, fox-trot, turkey-trot; shimmy.
danse du ventre [F.], chonchina [Jap.], cancan.
DANCER, danseur (fem. danseuse) [F.], première danseuse [F.], ballet dancer; geisha [Jap.]; nautch girl, bayadere [both India]; clog -, step -, skirt -, figure- dancer; figurant (fem. figurante), Morisco [obs.], morris dancer; terpsichorean [colloq.]; Terpsichore.
FESTIVITY, merrymaking; party &c. (social gathering) [See Sociality]; revels, revelry, reveling or revelling, carnival, Saturnalia, jollification [colloq.], junket, picnic.
fête champêtre [F.], lawn party, garden party, regatta, field day, fête [F.], festival, gala, gala day; feast, banquet (food) [See Food]; regale, symposium, high jinks [colloq.], carouse, carousal, brawl; wassail; wake; bust [slang], tear [slang]; Turnerfest [Ger.]; gymkhana [orig. Anglo-Ind.]; treat; ridotto [It.], drum [obs. or hist.], kettledrum [colloq.], rout [archaic]; tea party, tea, tea fight [slang]; Kaffee-Klatsch [Ger.]; concert (music) [See Music]; show [colloq.]; play (drama) [See The Drama]; randy [dial.]; clambake, fish fry, beefsteak fry, squantum, donation party [all U. S.]; bat, bum [both slang, U. S.], jamboree [slang].
ROUND OF PLEASURE, dissipation, a short life and a merry one, racketing, holiday making.
rejoicing [See Rejoicing]; jubilee (celebration) [See Celebration].
FIREWORKS, feu-de-joie [F.], fire crackers, bonfire.
HOLIDAY; red-letter day, play day; high days and holidays; high holiday, Bank holiday [Eng.]; May day, Derby day [Eng.]; Easter Monday, Whitmonday, Twelfth Night, Halloween; Christmas [See Regularity of recurrence. Periodicity]; Dewali [Hindu], Holi or Hoolee [Hindu]; Bairam, Muharram [both Moham.]; wayzgoose [Printers], beanfeast [Eng.]; Arbor -, Declaration -, Independence -, Labor -, Memorial or Decoration -, Thanksgiving- Day; Washington’s -, Lincoln’s -, King’s- birthday; Empire Day [Brit.]; Mardi gras, mi-carême [F.], feria [S. W. U. S.], fiesta [Sp.].
PLACE OF AMUSEMENT, theater or theatre; concert -hall, – room; ballroom, dance hall, assembly room; moving-picture -, cinema- theater; movies [colloq.]; music hall; vaudeville -theater, – show; circus, hippodrome.
park, pleasance or plaisance [archaic]; arbor; garden (horticulture) [See Agriculture]; pleasure-, play-, cricket-, croquet- archery-, polo-, hunting- ground; tennis-, racket-, squash-, badminton- court; bowling- green, -alley; croquet lawn, rink, glaciarium, ice rink, skating rink; golf links, race course, athletic field, stadium; gymnasium, swimming -pool, – bath; billiard room, pool room, casino, shooting gallery; flying horses, roundabout, merry-go-round; swing; montagne Russe [F.]; aërial railway, scenic railway, roller coaster, chutes, flying boats, etc.
Vauxhall, Ranelagh, Hurlingham; Lord’s, Epsom, Newmarket, Doncaster, Sandown Park, Henley, Cowes, Mortlake [all in Eng.]; Coney Island; Brooklands, Sheepshead Bay, Belmont Park, Saratoga; New London, Forest Hills, Longwood [all in U. S.]; Monte Carlo; Longchamps [France]; Flemington [Melbourne, Australia].
[SPORTS AND GAMES] athletic sports, track events, gymnastics; archery, rifle shooting; tournament, pugilism (contention) [See Contention]; sporting [See Pursuit]; horse racing, the turf; water polo; aquatics [See Navigation].
skating, ice skating, roller skating, sliding; cricket, tennis, lawn tennis, pallone, rackets, squash, fives, trap bat and ball, badminton, battledore and shuttlecock, pall-mall, croquet, golf, curling, hockey, shinny or shinney; polo, football, Rugby, rugger [colloq.]; association, soccer [colloq.]; tent pegging, tilting at the ring, quintain, greasy pole; knur (or knurr) and spell [Eng.]; quoits, discus; hammer -, horseshoe- throwing; putting the -weight, – shot; hurdling; leapfrog; sack -, potato -, obstacle -, three-legged- race; hop skip and jump; French and English, tug of war; rounders, baseball, basket ball, pushball, captain ball; lacrosse; tobogganing.
blind-man’s buff, hunt the slipper, hide and seek, kiss in the ring; snapdragon; cross questions and crooked answers, twenty questions, what’s my thought? charades, crambo, dumb crambo, crisscross, proverbs, bouts rimés [F.]; hopscotch, jackstones, mumble-the-peg or mumblety-peg; ping-pong, tiddledywinks, tipcat.
billiards, pool, pyramids, bagatelle; bowls, skittles, ninepins, American bowls; tenpins [U. S.], tivoli.
chess, draughts, checkers or chequers, backgammon, dominoes, halma, dice, craps, crap shooting, crap game, “negro golf,” “indoor golf” [both humorous]; merelles, nine men’s morris, gobang, “the royal game of goose” [Goldsmith]; fox and geese; lotto or loto &c. 1
CARDS; whist, rubber; round game; loo, cribbage, bésique [F.], euchre, cutthroat euchre, railroad euchre; drole, écarté, picquet, all fours, quadrille, omber or ombre, reverse, Pope Joan, commit; boston, vingt et un [F.], quinze, thirty-one, put, speculation, connections, brag, cassino, lottery, commerce, snip-snap-snorem, lift smoke, blind hookey, Polish bank, Earl of Coventry, napoleon or nap [colloq.]; banker, penny-ante, poker, jack pot; blind -, draw -, straight -, stud- poker; bluff; bridge, – whist; auction; monte, reversis, squeezers, old maid, fright, beggar-my-neighbor, goat, hearts, patience, solitaire, pairs.
court cards; ace, king, queen, knave, jack, joker; bower; right -, left- bower; dummy; hand; trump; face cards, diamonds, hearts, clubs, spades; pack, deck; flush, full-house, straight, three of a kind, pair, misère [F.] &c.
TOY, plaything, bauble; doll (puppet) [See Representation]; teetotum; knickknack (trifle) [See Unimportance]; magic lantern (show) [See Appearance]; peep-, puppet-, raree-, galanty or gallanty-, Punch-and-Judy- show; marionettes; toy-shop; “quips and cranks and wanton wiles, nods and becks and wreathed smiles” [Milton].
SPORTSMAN (fem. sportswoman), hunter, Nimrod.
archer, toxophilite; cricketer, footballer, ball-players &c.
GAMESTER (fem. gamestress), sport, gambler; dicer, punter, plunger.
REVELER or reveller, carouser; master of the -ceremonies, – revels; arbiter elegantiarum [L.]; arbiter bibendi [L.].
DEVOTEE, enthusiast, follower, fan [slang, U. S.], rooter [slang or cant, U. S.]; turfman.
CHEER, rejoice; recreate, solace; please [See Pleasurableness]; interest; treat, regale.
AMUSE ONESELF; game; play, – a game, – pranks, – tricks; sport, disport, toy, wanton, revel, junket, feast, carouse, banquet, make merry, drown care; drive dull care away; frolic, gambol, frisk, romp; caper; dance (leap) [See Leap]; keep up the ball; run a rig, sow one’s wild oats, have one’s fling, take one’s pleasure; paint the town red [slang]; see life; desipere in loco [Horace], play the fool.
make -, keep- holiday; go a-Maying.
while away -, beguile- the time; kill time, dally.
AMUSED &c. v.; “pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw” [Pope].
- Deus nobis hæc otia fecit.
- Dum vivimus vivamus.
- Dulce est desipere in loco.—Horace
- (Every room) hath blazed with lights and brayed with minstrelsy.—Timon of Athens
- Misce stultitiam consiliis brevem.—Horace
- Foot it featly here and there.—Tempest
- The grass stoops not, she treads on it so light.—Venus and Adonis
- He capers, he dances, he has eyes of youth.—Merry Wives
- Fleet the time carelessly as they did in the golden world.—As You Like It
- Therefore put you in your best array!—As You Like It
- A very merry, dancing, drinking, Laughing, quaffing and unthinking time.—Dryden
- A clear fire, a clean hearth, and the rigour of the game.—Lamb
- Patience, and shuffle the cards.—Cervantes
- Lady, wherefore talk you so?—I Henry VI
- They laugh that win.—Othello