Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Playful behavior or merriment.
  • noun A playful movement or act.
  • noun A sexual act or encounter.
  • intransitive verb To move about or behave playfully; romp.
  • intransitive verb To engage in lovemaking.
  • adjective Merry.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To play merry pranks; engage in acts of levity, mirth, and gaiety.
  • Gay; merry; sportive; full of mirth or pranks.
  • noun A flight of levity or gaiety and mirth; a prank.
  • noun A scene of gaiety and mirth, as in dancing or play; a merrymaking.
  • noun A plaything or an ornament.
  • noun Synonyms Gambol, escapade.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A wild prank; a flight of levity, or of gayety and mirth.
  • noun A scene of gayety and mirth, as in lively play, or in dancing; a merrymaking.
  • adjective Full of levity; dancing, playing, or frisking about; full of pranks; frolicsome; gay; merry.
  • intransitive verb To play wild pranks; to play tricks of levity, mirth, and gayety; to indulge in frolicsome play; to sport.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Merry, joyous; later especially, frolicsome, sportive, full of playful mischief.
  • adjective obsolete, rare Free; liberal; bountiful; generous.
  • noun Gaiety; merriment.
  • noun A playful antic.
  • verb intransitive To romp; to behave playfully and uninhibitedly.
  • verb transitive, archaic To cause to be merry.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb play boisterously
  • noun gay or light-hearted recreational activity for diversion or amusement

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Dutch vrolijk, merry, from Middle Dutch vrolijc : vro, happy + -lijc, -like; see līk- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Dutch vrolijk ("cheerful"). Compare German fröhlich ("blitheful, gaily, happy, merry").

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Examples

  • We looked up in the dictionary the word frolic, and it's -- the definition is something like a playful, mischievous action.

    CNN Transcript Oct 28, 2009 2009

  • And this, too, I suppose she calls a frolic; or, in her own vulgar language, fun.

    Tales and Novels — Volume 03 Maria Edgeworth 1808

  • But if such was her mischievous purpose she was completely disappointed; for Roland Graeme, internally piquing himself on his self-command, neither laughed nor was discomposed; and all that the maiden gained by her frolic was a severe rebuke from her companion, taxing her with mal-address and indecorum.

    The Abbot 2008

  • Anyone who would self-identify as a frolic-er is a dorc.

    Dorcs! the hottest trend in footwear (for suckas) « raincoaster 2007

  • What the hell, the word frolic has no business on a football blog.)

    Blogging The Boys 2008

  • And Tom laughed, as he recalled the frolic he had been on the night before.

    An Old-Fashioned Girl 1950

  • In all there was an air of release, and the young people looked as if they were going to one of the social gatherings they would have called a frolic, in the backwoods phrase.

    The Leatherwood God William Dean Howells 1878

  • And Tom laughed, as he recalled the frolic he had been on the night before.

    An Old-Fashioned Girl Alcott, Louisa May, 1832-1888 1870

  • Tom laughed, as he recalled the frolic he had been on the night before.

    An Old-Fashioned Girl Louisa May Alcott 1860

  • And this, too, I suppose she calls a frolic; or, in her own vulgar language, fun.

    Belinda 1801

Comments

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  • cues green, rolling meadows.

    cues warm sunlight and a gentle breeze.

    December 15, 2007

  • A possibly fun village in Northumberland, England.

    January 1, 2008

  • As an adjective:

    "It was sweet to see them so frolic."

    April 23, 2011

  • The winter left us melancholic

    But May arrives bright and bucolic -

    Cavorting and gambols

    And giggles in brambles

    And all sorts of innocent frolic.

    May 11, 2018