Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Full of good humor and high spirits.
- adjective Exhibiting or occasioning happiness or mirth; cheerful.
- adjective Greatly pleasing; enjoyable.
- adverb To a great extent or degree; extremely.
- intransitive verb To keep amused or diverted for one's own purposes; humor.
- intransitive verb To amuse oneself with humorous banter.
- noun Chiefly British A good or festive time.
- noun Slang Amusement; kicks.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To rejoice; make merry.
- Remarkably; uncommonly; very: as, jolly awkward; jolly drunk.
- To make a false offer or bid at an auction.
- To ridicule; make fun of; chaff.
- To be jolly or good natured to (a person), with the idea of cheering him up or of getting something out of him; flatter.
- noun In ceramics, a machine used for making plates; a variety of the jigger. See the extract.
- Gay; of fine appearance; handsome; well-conditioned; thriving.
- Full of life and merriment; jovial; gaily cheerful; festive.
- Characterized or attended by joviality; expressing or inspiring mirth; exciting mirthfulness or gaiety.
- Gallant; brave.
- Great; remarkable; uncommon: as, a jolly muff.
- Synonyms Jolly, Jovial, Mirthful, Merry, Facetious, playful, funny, sprightly, frolicsome, sportive. Facetious is distinguished from the first four words in applying to the making of witticisms rather than to the continuous flow of contagious good humor easily breaking into laughter. If there is any difference between jolly and jovial, it is that the latter is rather the more dignified of the two. Mirthful and merry imply most of laughter, and jolly stands next in this respect. There is little difference between mirthful and merry, but the former may be the more dignified and the latter the more demonstrative. Merry expresses the largest and freest overflow of animal spirits. See
hilarity and mirth. - noun A jolly-boat.
- Slightly exhilarated by drink.
- Fine; pretty; great; big:used vaguely, often ironically: as, that's a jolly way of doing things; what a jolly fool he looked! a jolly shame.
- noun Good-natured bantering talk intended to cheer a person or to induce him to comply with the wishes of the speaker.
- noun A cheer; a hurrah.
- noun A sham bidder at an auction; a confederate of cheats.
- noun A British slang name for a marine: not used with reference to United States marines.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Sailor's Slang A marine in the English navy.
- adjective Full of life and mirth; jovial; joyous; merry; mirthful.
- adjective Expressing mirth, or inspiring it; exciting mirth and gayety.
- adjective Now mostly colloq., Now mostly colloq. Of fine appearance; handsome; excellent; lively; agreeable; pleasant.
- transitive verb colloq. To cause to be jolly; to make good-natured; to encourage to feel pleasant or cheerful; -- often implying an insincere or bantering spirit; hence, to poke fun at.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Full of high and merry spirits;
jovial . - noun UK a pleasure trip or
excursion - adverb UK, dated
very ,extremely - verb transitive To
amuse ordivert .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a happy party
- verb be silly or tease one another
- noun a yawl used by a ship's sailors for general work
- adjective full of or showing high-spirited merriment
- adverb to a moderately sufficient extent or degree
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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You know, I was just what I call a jolly girl when
This Is the End Stella Benson 1912
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"Well, that's what I call a jolly good riddance of bad rubbish,"
My Friend Smith A Story of School and City Life Talbot Baines Reed 1872
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Speak, ye ballroom frequenters, how would you skip, even with the light of brilliant eyes to encourage you, if there were not what you call a jolly good supper somewhere in the background?
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He then asked for something to eat, and commenced telling me a variety of stories relative to what he termed jolly parties in his former days; so that the day passed very agreeably.
The Little Savage Frederick Marryat 1820
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He then asked for some thing to eat, and commenced telling me a variety of stories relative to what he termed jolly parties in his former days; so that the day passed very agreeably.
The Little Savage Frederick Marryat 1820
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Back in jolly old Britain is Deryn Sharp, who is training to be an airman in the British Air Service.
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Back in jolly old Britain is Deryn Sharp, who is training to be an airman in the British Air Service.
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Back in jolly old Britain is Deryn Sharp, who is training to be an airman in the British Air Service.
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It can be built, in jolly quick time, when a nation has access to its own MONEY.
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It describes at some length and in jolly detail (as do the various links from it, which are also worth following) the ways in which those massive cyber success stories YouTube and Twitter are believed to be losing money hand over fist, currently surviving only on the largesse of venture capitalists and Google (which recently bought YouTube despite it being loss-making).
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A non-work excursion away from the station in US Antarctic English is a “boondoggle”, or a “jolly” for the Britons.
Fidlets, fingies and riding a doo: study sheds light on Antarctic English slang Eva Corlett 2024
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