happy ending

English

Pronunciation

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Noun

happy ending (plural happy endings)

1. (literature) A clichéd conclusion in which all loose ends are tied up and all main characters are content.

   Synonym: eucatastrophe

   • 1784, The Novelist's Magazine, volume XV, London: Harrison and Co., page 1263, column 1:

     And how was this happy ending to be brought about? Why, by this very eaſy and trite expedient; to wit, by reforming Lovelace, and marrying him to Clariſſa.

   • 1827 June 8, The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, page 4, column 3:

     The heroine was killed, and since then the happy ending has only been preserved in an appendix in the play.

   • 1930, Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness:

     Life is not to be conceived on the analogy of a melodrama in which the hero and heroine go through incredible misfortunes for which they are compensated by a happy ending.

   • 1944, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 1, in The Razor’s Edge […], 1st American edition, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Co., →OCLC, section i, page 1:

     Death ends all things and so is the comprehensive conclusion of a story, but marriage finishes it very properly too and the sophisticated are ill-advised to sneer at what is by convention termed a happy ending.

   • 1957 July 6, What’s Opera, Doc?, spoken by Bugs Bunny (Mel Blanc):

     Well, what did you expect in an opera? A happy ending?

   • 1968, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 2nd edition, London: Fontana Press, published 1993, page 25:

     Modern romance, like Greek tragedy, celebrates the mystery of dismemberment, which is life in time. The happy ending is justly scorned as a misrepresentation; for the world, as we know it, as we have seen it, yields but one ending: death, disintegration, dismemberment, and the crucifixion of our heart with the passing of the forms that we have loved.

   • 1987, “Storybook Love”, Willy DeVille (music):

     And she said: / "Don't you know that storybook loves, / Always have a happy ending."

2. (vulgar, slang, euphemistic) A hand job, especially one provided by the masseuse to the client at or towards the end of a massage.
   • 2009, Chelsea Handler, Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 147:

     “I don't want sucky sucky, I just want a massage. It's okay if she doesn't know how to give a massage, but could she at least tickle my back?” “No happy ending!” she yelled, getting louder. “I don't want a happy ending, you hot mess, I just want a little back rub. […] ”

Translations

happy end

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 大團圓／大团圆 (zh) (dàtuányuán), 大團圓結局／大团圆结局 (dàtuányuán jiéjú)

• Dutch: blijeinde n, happy ending n
• Esperanto: feliĉa fino
• Finnish: onnellinen loppu
• French: fin heureuse f, happy end (fr) m, eucatastrophe f
• German: Happy End (de) n, glückliches Ende n
• Greek: χάπι εντ (el) n (chápi ent)
• Hungarian: hepiend (hu)
• Indonesian: akhir bahagia
• Italian: lieto fine m
• Japanese: ハッピーエンド (happīendo)
• Korean: 해피엔드 (haepiendeu), 해피 엔딩 (haepi ending)
• Lithuanian: laiminga pabaiga f
• Norwegian: lykkelig slutt m, happy ending m
• Persian: پایان خوش, هپی اندینگ
• Polish: happy end m
• Portuguese: final feliz (pt) m
• Romanian: final norocos n, final fericit n, final reușit n, sfârșit fericit n
• Russian: счастли́вый коне́ц m (sčastlívyj konéc), хэ́ппи-э́нд (ru) m (xɛ́ppi-énd)
• Slovak: šťastný koniec, happyend
• Spanish: final feliz m
• Swedish: lyckligt slut n
• Turkish: mutlu son
• Ukrainian: щасли́вий кіне́ць m (ščaslývyj kinécʹ), хе́пі-е́нд m (xépi-énd), щасли́ве закі́нчення n (ščaslýve zakínčennja)

hand job, especially one provided by the masseuse

• French: finition (fr) f
• Tagalog: linggam

See also

• happily ever after
• good ending

Further reading

• happy ending on Wikipedia.Wikipedia