Please, gratify, delight, rejoice, gladden, tickle, regale mean to make happy or to be a cause of happiness.
Please usually implies an agreement with one’s wishes, tastes, or aspirations and a happiness which ranges from mere content and the absence of grounds for displeasure to actual elation.
Gratify (compare gratifying under PLEASANT ) suggests an even stronger measure of satisfaction than please and is normally positive in its implication of pleasure.
Delight stresses the emotional rather than the intellectual quality of the reaction, though the latter is often also implied; it suggests intense, lively pleasure that is not only keenly felt but usually vividly expressed in outward signs.
Rejoice implies a happiness that exceeds bounds and reveals itself openly (as in smiles, in song, in festivities, or in enthusiastic effort).
Gladden sometimes is indistinguishable from rejoice except in rarely suggesting excess of emotion and in being usually transitive. It often, however, connotes a raising of the spirits, or a cheering or consoling in depression or grief.
Tickle and regale involve the idea of delight, but they are often less dignified in their connotations.
Tickle implies such pleasurable sensations as tingles and thrills or suggests an almost physical gratification.
Sometimes, with reference to physical tickling, it suggests provocation of laughter.
Regale connotes huge enjoyment or a feasting upon what gives pleasure.