make someone's day

To cause one to feel very happy; to be a very positive highlight of one's day. When my neighbors surprised me with homemade chocolate chip cookies, it really made my day. Getting compliments at work always makes my day!

COMMON If someone or something makes your day, they make you feel very happy. There was such a sincere expression of friendliness on both their faces that it was a joy to see. It really made my day. When you have a customer who turns round and thanks you, it makes your day.

That has made me very happy, restored my confidence, and otherwise gratified me. This twentieth-century expression relies on the meaning of make as “succeed.” However, in the mouth of a tough police detective named Dirty Harry, a film role played by Clint Eastwood, the phrase was turned into “Go ahead—make my day,” meaning “Give me a chance to get back at you.” In the presidential campaign of 1988 George H. W. Bush used the phrase quite frequently, as President Ronald Reagan had before him, and it was not always clear which meaning was intended. However, the more common usage was that employed by P. G. Wodehouse in his novel, The Luck of Bodkins (1935), “That will be great. That will just make my day.”