Word.ws English Dictionary

cheers

/t͡ʃɪəz/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/t͡ʃɪːz/

cheers is the third-person singular simple present indicative of cheer.

cheers is the plural of cheer.

Interjection

  1. A common toast used when drinking in company.
    Synonyms:
    bottoms up, skoal, chin chin, down the hatch, here’s mud in your eye
  2. (Commonwealth, informal) goodbye, especially as a sign-off in an email or after writing a comment.
    Synonyms:
    bye
  3. (Commonwealth, informal) Thank you.
    Synonyms:
    ta

Meaning of cheer

Verb

cheer (third-person singular simple present cheers, present participle cheering, simple past and past participle cheered)

  1. (transitive) To gladden; to make cheerful; often with up.
    • We were cheered by the offer of a cup of tea.
  2. (transitive) To infuse life, courage, animation, or hope, into; to inspirit; to solace or comfort.
    • The proud he tam'd, the penitent he cheer'd.1700, [John] Dryden, “The Character of a Good Parson; Imitated from Chaucer, and Inlarg’d”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
  3. (obsolete, transitive) To encourage to do something.
    • Let’s cheere our ſouldiers to incounter him, […]
      And burne him in the fury of that flame,
      That none can quench but blood and Empery.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
  4. (ambitransitive) To applaud or encourage with cheers or shouts.
    • The crowd cheered in support of the athletes.
  5. (figuratively, transitive) To feel or express enthusiasm for (something).
    • The finance sector will cheer this decision.
    Synonyms:
    hail, salute

See all 12 meanings of cheer

Verb

cheers (third-person singular simple present cheerses, present participle cheersing, simple past and past participle cheersed)

  1. (ambitransitive) To say "cheers" as a toast (to someone).
    • So I just tilted my beer, cheersing him.2020, Bryan Washington, Memorial, Atlantic Books (2021), page 125
    • We cheersed and started drinking.2018, Kavya Mahadik, Unheard Love: Experience the illusion of love

Synonyms of cheers

13 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of cheers

third-person singular presentcheerses
present participlecheersing
past participlecheersed
pastcheersed

Words formed from cheers

Phrases with cheers

Words that rhyme with cheers

12 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about cheers

What does cheers mean?
Cheers means to say "cheers" as a toast (to someone).
What is cheers the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Cheers is the third-person singular simple present indicative of cheer.
What part of speech is cheers?
Cheers can be a verb or an interjection.
How do you pronounce cheers?
Cheers is pronounced /t͡ʃɪəz/ (UK).
What is the past tense of cheers?
The past tense of cheers is cheersed.

Words near cheers in the dictionary

  1. cheerly
  2. cheermaster
  3. cheermasters
  4. cheero
  5. Cheero Point
  6. cheers
  7. cheers my dears
  8. cheers on
  9. cheers to the echo
  10. cheers up
  11. cheers, big ears

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cheers (page history and authors); cheer (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-cheers.ogg, en-us-cheers.ogg.

Cite this entry: “cheers.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cheers. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.