Happy \Hap"py\, a. [Compar. Happier; superl. Happiest.]

[From Hap chance.]

1. Favored by hap, luck, or fortune; lucky; fortunate; successful; prosperous; satisfying desire; as, a happy expedient; a happy effort; a happy venture; a happy omen.

Chymists have been more happy in finding experiments than the causes of them. --Boyle.

2. Experiencing the effect of favorable fortune; having the feeling arising from the consciousness of well-being or of enjoyment; enjoying good of any kind, as peace, tranquillity, comfort; contented; joyous; as, happy hours, happy thoughts.

Happy is that people, whose God is the Lord. --Ps. cxliv. 15.

The learned is happy Nature to explore, The fool is happy that he knows no more. --Pope.

3. Dexterous; ready; apt; felicitous.

One gentleman is happy at a reply, another excels in a in a rejoinder. --Swift.

Happy family, a collection of animals of different and hostile propensities living peaceably together in one cage. Used ironically of conventional alliances of persons who are in fact mutually repugnant.

Happy-go-lucky, trusting to hap or luck; improvident; easy-going. ``Happy-go-lucky carelessness.'' --W. Black.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)