Word.ws English Dictionary

Dear Joy

Dear Joy noun: an Irishman.

Noun

Dear Joy (plural Dear Joys)

  1. (derogatory, obsolete) An Irishman.
    • A Dear Joy in the late King James his Army, being newly Liſted, and Armed with a Match-lock, having never before ſeen any of that Faſhion, was much put to a ſtand, at the rare Phyſiognomy of this ſurprizing Whim-wham:1690, anonymous author, Teagueland Jeſts, or Bogg-Witticisms, part 2, page 135

Forms of Dear Joy

pluralDear Joys

Origin of Dear Joy

From the supposed propensity of 17th-century Irishmen to exclaim ‘dear joy’.

Questions about Dear Joy

What does Dear Joy mean?
Dear Joy means an Irishman.
What part of speech is Dear Joy?
Dear Joy is a noun.
What is the plural of Dear Joy?
The plural of Dear Joy is Dear Joys.

Words near Dear Joy in the dictionary

  1. Dear Jane letters
  2. Dear John
  3. Dear John letter
  4. Dear John letters
  5. Dear Johns
  6. Dear Joy
  7. Dear Leader
  8. Dear Leaders
  9. dear Lord
  10. dear me
  11. dear Sir

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Dear Joy (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.

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