over the moon
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Extremely happy or delighted
Literally: beyond the earth's satellite
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Well, I can appreciate they're not exactly going to be over the moon, but this is your life we're talking about, not theirs.
For a long time now Luce had been a great admirer of Peter Sebastian's work, and had been over the moon when she'd been approached and offered this wonderful opportunity.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “over the moon” mean?
Extremely happy or delighted Literally: beyond the earth's satellite
Is “over the moon” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.