Definition of JOLLY

jolly

Plural: jollies

Noun

  • a happy party
  • a yawl used by a ship's sailors for general work
  • A pleasure trip or excursion.
  • A marine in the English navy.
  • A word of praise, or favorable notice.
  • Ellipsis of jolly boat.

Verb

Verb Forms: jollied, jollying, jollies

  • To flatter or persuade someone for personal gain.
  • be silly or tease one another
  • To amuse or divert.
  • To praise or talk up.

Adjective Satellite

  • full of or showing high-spirited merriment; ; - Wordsworth
    • "the jolly crowd at the reunion"
    • "jolly old Saint Nick"

Adverb

  • to a moderately sufficient extent or degree
    • "jolly decent of him"

Adj

  • Full of merriment and high spirits; jovial; joyous; merry.
  • Splendid, excellent, pleasant.
  • Drunk.

Adv

  • very, extremely

Adjective

  • Full of high spirits, cheerful, and merry.

Examples

  • He felt JOLLY after managing to spell "QUIZZICAL" for a whopping 70 points in Words With Friends.
  • It’s jolly hot in here, isn’t it?
  • She tried to JOLLY her opponent into a false sense of security before unleashing a bingo.

Origin / Etymology

From Middle English joli, jolif (“merry, cheerful”), from Old French joli, jolif (“merry, joyful”). For the loss of final -f compare tardy, hasty, hussy, etc.
It is uncertain whether the Old French word is from Old Norse jól ("a midwinter feast, Yule", hence "fest-ive"), in which case, equivalent to yule + -ive, compare Dutch jolig (“happy, festive, frolicsome, jolly”), West Frisian joelich, joalich (“merry, jolly”), Middle High German jœlich (“hooting, jubilant”). Alternatively, the Old French adjective has been conjectured to derive from a Vulgar Latin *gaudivus (from Latin gaudeō, more at joy), in which case it would require Early Old French ⟨d⟩ /ð/ to irregularly become ⟨l⟩ in jolif rather than being dropped, which is the usual case (alternatively, /l/ may be a hiatus filler inserted into expected *joïf). A possible parallel of ⟨d⟩ to ⟨l⟩ can be seen in the French name Valois, according to one hypothesis from Latin Vadensis, though this origin is itself uncertain and disputed.

Scrabble Score: 15

jolly: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
jolly: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
jolly: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 18

jolly: valid Words With Friends Word