Hap"pi*ness, n. [From Happy.]
1.
Good luck; good fortune; prosperity.
All happiness bechance to thee in Milan!
Shak.
2.
An agreeable feeling or condition of the soul arising from good fortune or propitious happening of any kind; the possession of those circumstances or that state of being which is attended enjoyment; the state of being happy; contentment; joyful satisfaction; felicity; blessedness.
3.
Fortuitous elegance; unstudied grace; -- used especially of language.
Some beauties yet no precepts can declare,
For there's a happiness, as well as care.
Pope.
Syn. -- Happiness, Felicity, Blessedness, Bliss. Happiness is generic, and is applied to almost every kind of enjoyment except that of the animal appetites; felicity is a more formal word, and is used more sparingly in the same general sense, but with elevated associations; blessedness is applied to the most refined enjoyment arising from the purest social, benevolent, and religious affections; bliss denotes still more exalted delight, and is applied more appropriately to the joy anticipated in heaven.
O happiness! our being's end and aim!
Pope.
Others in virtue place felicity,
But virtue joined with riches and long life;
In corporal pleasures he, and careless ease.
Milton.
His overthrow heaped happiness upon him;
For then, and not till then, he felt himself,
And found the blessedness of being little.
Shak.
© Webster 1913.