in clover

• like a bee in clover, like a pig in clover, like pigs in clover, rolling in clover

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

in clover

1. In a condition of prosperity.
   • 1854, Charles Dickens, “chapter 26”, in Hard Times. For These Times, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC:

     [S]he resigned herself with noble fortitude to lodging, as one may say, in clover, and feeding on the fat of the land.

   • 1899, Truth, volume 45, page 1053:

     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.

   • 1993 August 16, James R. Gaines, “From the Managing Editor”, in Time:

     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."

2. Happy and contented.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:happy

   to live in clover

   • 1875, Anthony Trollope, chapter 55, in The Way We Live Now, London: Chapman and Hall, […]:

     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.

   • 1946, Mel Tormé, Robert Wells, “Born to be Blue”:

     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

   • 2016, “In Clover”, in Moira Buffini (lyrics), Damon Albarn (music), Wonder.land:

     Oh, I am a child of fortune / I've had my share of wretched luck / But I now live in clover

4. 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.

• “in clover”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “in clover”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “in clover”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “in clover”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.