jolly
pronunciation
How to pronounce jolly in British English:
UK [ˈdʒɒli]
How to pronounce jolly in American English:
US [ˈdʒɑːli]
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- Noun:
- a happy party
- a yawl used by a ship's sailors for general work
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- Verb:
- be silly or tease one another
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- Adjective:
- full of or showing high-spirited merriment
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- Adverb:
- used as an intensifier (`jolly' is used informally in Britain)
Word Origin
- jolly
- jolly: [14] Old French jolif meant ‘pleasant, merry, festive’ (it has been speculated that it may have been derived from jól, the Old Norse term for the midwinter festival, to which English yule is closely related). English took the adjective over, and whereas in French (the modern form is joli) it has come to mean ‘pretty’, in English it kept closer to the original sense ‘merry’.=> yule
- jolly (adj.)
- c. 1300 (late 13c. as a surname), from Old French jolif "festive, merry, amorous, pretty" (12c.) of uncertain origin (cognate with Italian giulivo "merry, pleasant"). Perhaps a Germanic loan-word from a source akin to Old Norse jol "a winter feast" (see yule), or from Latin gaudere "to rejoice," from PIE *gau- "to rejoice" (see joy). For loss of -f, compare tardy, hasty. Related: Jollily; jolliness.
Antonym
Example
- 1. So the talkative , jolly toddler has to live at a local nursery boarding school from sunday evening to saturday morning .
- 2. Those who have been axed don 't need to take the sacking personally , and not working in the days before christmas can be rather jolly .
- 3. It shows a jolly company of teenagers , all in the top hats and cravats of the time , preparing to picnic at the end of a shoot .
- 4. Whatever he is called , he is still the same short , fat , jolly old man with a long beard , wearing a red suit with white fur .
- 5. Indeed , the protests were surprisingly jolly and gentle at the start , to the relief of bangkokians who remembered the april 2009 unrest .