Dictionary

semi-charmed en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˌsɛmiˈt͡ʃɑːmd/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (General-American) audio
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˌsɛmiˈt͡ʃɑɹmd/ (General-American)

Etymology

From semi- (prefix meaning ‘half; rather, somewhat’) + charmed.

Meanings

1. (not-comparable) Lucky and pleasant but with some problems.
   • Anna (Ella Hunt) leads a semi-charmed high school life—she's beautiful and smart and loved, but still a Pretty In Pink-style heroine with a widowed janitor father who doesn't get her big hopes and dreams. 2018 November 27, April Wolfe, “Anna And The Apocalypse is a Holiday-horror Cocktail of Singing, Maiming, and Clichés”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 04 Nov 2019:
   • My life has followed the clichéd and semi-charmed life of a teenager growing up in a very nice American neighborhood. 2006, Edward Fiske, Bruce Hammond, Fiske Real College Essays That Work, Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks, →ISBN, page 136:
   • For the next two years, Jewish artisans and textile workers in the Bialystok ghetto lived a semi-charmed existence, protected by the Wehrmacht against SS demands they be annihilated. 1979, Saul S. Friedman, Amcha: An Oral Testament of the Holocaust, Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, →ISBN, page 195:
   • I suspect one reason it was relatively easy for me to become Catholic is that I had led, up to that point, a semicharmed life. I was a very weird kid who went to schools where bullying wasn't tolerated. 2014, Eve Tushnet, “O Tell Me the Truth about Love”, in Christine Firer Hinze, J. Patrick Hornbeck II, editors, More Than a Monologue: Sexual Diversity and the Catholic Church (Catholic Practice in North America), volume 1 (Voices of Our Times), New York, N.Y.: Fordham University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 26:
   • My search for joy began about a decade ago. At the time, I was living a semi-charmed life; the thirst, seek, and settle train that I was on nearly ruined me. I was in my late twenties and experiencing a "quarter life crisis." 2007, Rich Wagner, “A Semi-charmed Life”, in The Myth of Happiness: Discovering a Joy You Never Thought Possible, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, →ISBN, part 1 (Thirsty for More), page 20:
   • I want something else / To get me through this / Semi-charmed kind of life / I want something else / I'm not listening when you say / Good-bye 1997 May 10, Stephan Jenkins, “Semi-Charmed Life”, in Third Eye Blind, performed by Third Eye Blind, Beverly Hills, Calif.: Elektra Entertainment Group, →OCLC:
   • The Fashionista Diaries (SoapNet, 9/8c) Love is in the air for the underlings who are learning that all work and no play has no place in their semicharmed lives. 2007, TV Guide, volume 55, Radnor, Pa.: Triangle Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4, column 3:

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