Dictionary

in clover en · ADP

Etymology

By pastoral metaphor, alluding to bees or grazing livestock who are well pleased by clover.

Meanings

1. In a condition of prosperity.
   • They tell Sasha, "There is big money here. You and the kids can get real decent money and live in clover the rest of your lives." 1993 August 16, James R. Gaines, “From the Managing Editor”, in Time:
   • [S]he resigned herself with noble fortitude to lodging, as one may say, in clover, and feeding on the fat of the land. 1854, Charles Dickens, “chapter 26”, in Hard Times. For These Times, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC:
   • A young man belonging to a good London club, having an allowance of £150 a year, and earning £300 a year by driving a taxameter cab, would be in clover. 1899, Truth, volume 45, page 1053:
2. Happy and contented.
   • Some folks were meant to live in clover / But they are such a chosen few / And clovers being green is something I've never seen / 'Cause I was born to be blue 1946, Mel Tormé, Robert Wells, “Born to be Blue”:
   • Oh, I am a child of fortune / I've had my share of wretched luck / But I now live in clover 2016, “In Clover”, in Moira Buffini (lyrics), Damon Albarn (music), Wonder.land:
   • Shelter at Carbury Manor was very much more comfortable than the priest's own establishment, even with the roof on, and Father Barham was in clover. 1873 May 1 – December 22 (date written), Anthony Trollope, chapter 55, in The Way We Live Now. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Chapman and Hall, […], published June 1875, →OCLC:
   • to live in clover
3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see in, clover.
   • These hogs are happy to be in clover.
   • This pasture will be in clover next year, and that one will be in rye.

Forms

Relateds

cloverleaf · salad days · four-leaf clover