optimist

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: op=ti=mist

CIDE DICTIONARY

optimist, n. [Cf. F. optimiste.].

•  One who holds the opinion that all events are ordered for the best.  [1913 Webster]
•  One who looks on the bright side of things, or takes hopeful views; one who experiences optimism{2}; -- opposed to pessimist.  [1913 Webster]

DEVIL DICTIONARY

optimist

n. A proponent of the doctrine that black is white.
A pessimist applied to God for relief.
"Ah, you wish me to restore your hope and cheerfulness," said God.
"No," replied the petitioner, "I wish you to create something that would justify them."
"The world is all created," said God, "but you have overlooked something -- the mortality of the optimist."

THESAURUS

optimist

Leibnizian optimist, Pollyanna, aspirant, aspirer, chiliast, dreamer, hopeful, hoper, idealist, irrepressible optimist, millenarian, millennialist, millennian, perfectibilist, perfectibilitarian, perfectionist, philosophical optimist, positivist, ray of sunshine, utopian

ROGET THESAURUS

optimist

Hope

N hope, hopes, desire, fervent hope, sanguine expectation, trust, confidence, reliance, faith, affiance, assurance, secureness, security, reassurance, good omen, good auspices, promise, well grounded hopes, good prospect, bright prospect, clear sky, assumption, presumption, anticipation, hopefulness, buoyancy, optimism, enthusiasm, heart of grace, aspiration, optimist, utopian, utopist, castles in the air, castles in Spain, chateaux en Espagne, le pot aut lait, Utopia, millennium, day dream, golden dream, dream of Alnaschar, airy hopes, fool's paradise, mirage, fond hope, beam of hope, ray of hope, gleam of hope, glimmer of hope, flash of hope, dawn of hope, star of hope, cheer, bit of blue sky, silver lining, silver lining of the cloud, bottom of Pandora's box, balm in Gilead, light at the end of the tunnel, anchor, sheet anchor, mainstay, staff, heaven, hoping, in hopes, hopeful, confident, secure, sanguine, in good heart, buoyed up, buoyant, elated, flushed, exultant, enthusiastic, heartsome, utopian, unsuspecting, unsuspicious, fearless, free from fear, free from suspicion, free from distrust, free from despair, exempt from fear, exempt from suspicion, exempt from distrust, exempt from despair, undespairing, self reliant, probable, on the high road to, within sight of shore, within sight of land, promising, propitious, of promise, full of promise, of good omen, auspicious, de bon augure, reassuring, encouraging, cheering, inspiriting, looking up, bright, roseate, couleur de rose, rose-colored, hopefully, Int, God speed!, nil desperandum, never say die, dum spiro spero, latet scintillula forsan, all is for the best, spero meliora, every cloud has a silver lining, the wish being father to the thought, hope told a flattering tale, rusticus expectat dum defluat amnis, at spes non fracta, ego spem prietio non emo, un Dieu est ma fiance, hope! thou nurse of young desire, in hoc signo spes mea, in hoc signo vinces, la speranza e il pan de miseri, l'esperance est le songe d'un homme eveille, the mighty hopes that make us men, the sickening pang of hope deferred.

Flatterer

N flatterer, adulator, eulogist, euphemist, optimist, encomiast, laudator, whitewasher, toady, toadeater, sycophant, courtier, Sir Pertinax MacSycophant, flaneur, proneur, puffer, touter, claqueur, clawback, earwig, doer of dirty work, parasite, hanger-on, yes-man, suckup, ass-kisser, brown-noser, teacher's pet, pessimum genus inimicorum laudantes.