carol
nounverbcommon in dialogue
- United States//ˈkɛɹəl//
- //ˈkæɹəl//
A ballad or song of joy.
noun
- 1
historicalA round dance accompanied by singing.
The carol, a combination of dance, music and song performed by a group, has a parallel history [to the mystery plays]. Although it existed earlier as a secular form – the round dance of which St Hugh's biographer was reminded by the shafts at Lincoln – it seems to have been turned to pious uses from about 1350.
- 2
A ballad or song of joy.
The humane mortals want their winter heere / No night is now with hymme or carroll bleſt; / Therefore the Moone (the gouerneſſe of floods) / Pale in her anger, waſhes all the aire; / That Rheumaticke diſeaſes do abound.
Oppos'd to her, on t' other Side, advance / The coſtly Feaſt, the Carol, and the Dance, / Minſtrels, Muſick, Poetry, and Play, / And Balls by Night, and Turnaments by Day.
The sunshine struck hot on his fur, soft breezes caressed his heated brow, and after the seclusion of the cellarage he had lived in so long the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost like a shout.
- 3
A ballad or song of joy. A (usually traditional) religious or secular song sung at Christmastime.
They sang a Christmas carol.
Carolle: f[eminine]. A kind of daunce wherein many daunce together; alſo, a Carroll, or Chriſtmas ſong.
Think on th' eternal home, / The Saviour left for you; / Think on the Lord most holy, come / To dwell with hearts untrue: / So shall ye tread untir'd his pastoral ways, / And in the darkness sing your carol of high praise.
I heard the bells on Christmas Day / Their old, familiar carols play, / And wild and sweet / The words repeat / Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
- 4
obsoleteA small closet or enclosure built against the inner side of a window of a monastery's cloister, to sit in for study.
Carol, or Carrel. A little pew, or closet, in a cloister, to sit and read in. They were common in greater monasteries, as Duram, Gloucester, Kirkham in Yorkshire, &c.; and had their name from the carols, or sentences inscribed on the walls about them, which often were couplets in rhyme. [Carola, Low Latin.]
An exquisite south-east door is preserved; it is round-headed, of four orders, with a foliated label. A canopied carol or monk's seat, a Pointed crocketed arch within a square case, is seen beside it, succeeded on the south wall by an arcade of trefoiled arches with toothed mouldings.
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English carole (“round dance with singing; group of people dancing and singing in a circle; song by carollers, carol; religious poem or song; circular thing; braid, chain (?); stall for study or writing; writing table”), from Old French carole (“round dance with singing”). The further etymology is uncertain; the following possibilities have been suggested: * From Old Italian carola, or directly from its etymon Medieval Latin choraula, a variant of choraulēs (“flute player accompanying a chorus dance”), from Ancient Greek χοραυλής (khoraulḗs, “one who accompanies a chorus on the flute”), from χορός (khorós, “choir; dance”) + αὐλός (aulós, “flute”). * From Latin corōlla (“little crown, coronet; small chaplet, garland, or wreath”), from corōna (“chaplet, garland, wreath”) + -la (diminutive suffix). Corōna is borrowed from Ancient Greek κορώνη (korṓnē, “type of crown; curved object (door handle, tip of a bow, stern of a ship, etc.)”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”). Compare chorus, terpsichorean. Noun sense 3 (“small closet or enclosure”) may refer to the fact that the item encloses or surrounds the person using it. The verb is derived from Middle English carolen (“to dance and/or sing in a round dance; to sing for (dancers in a round dance); (figurative) to spend time noisily or unprofitably”), from Old French caroler (“to sing”), from carole (noun) (see above) + -er (a variant of -ier (suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs)).
verb
- 1
historicalTo participate in a carol (a round dance accompanied by singing).
You might see the townsmen and the ladies carolling in the squares, squires and serjans and young girls singing; there is no street and no house to be found there that is not adorned with hangings of gold and silk.
- 2
To sing in a joyful manner.
The sun shone, and the birds were caroling.
And when the ſtubborne ſtroke of ſtronger ſtounds, / Has ſomewhat ſlackt the tenor of thy ſtring; / Of loue and luſtihead tho maiſt thou ſing, / And carroll lowde, and leade the Millers rounde, [...]
As the lark with vary'd tune, / Carrols to the evening loud; / Mark the mild reſplendent moon, / Breaking through a parted cloud!
Riſe, ſons of harmony, and hail the morn, / While warbling larks on ruſſet pinions float; / Or ſeek at noon the woodland ſcene remote, / Where the grey linnets carol from the hill.
- 3
To sing carols; especially to sing Christmas carols in a group.
Christmas morning was welcomed by services in some churches. Everyone in the Bingham house, along with other church members, went carolling at five o'clock in the morning, which culminated in the Christmas message at the church, delivered by the pastor. Everyone's heart was blessed.
Gather up the neighbor kids and go caroling around the neighborhood … just for the joy of singing together!
- 4
To praise or celebrate in song.
- 5
To sing (a song) cheerfully.
Now Sol hath ſcap't the Oxes horn, / The Ram, the winds, the ſtormes, and harms; / The loving Twins by Leda born, / Will entertain him in their arms. / And Flora ſmiles to feel thoſe beams / Which whilom were with-drawn ſo long. / The pratling birds, the purling ſtreams / Do carroll forth her wedding ſong.
Why do the Delian Palms incline their Boughs, / Self-mov'd; and hov'ring Swans, their Throats releas'd / From native Silence, carol Sounds harmonious?
[...] Ye villagers rejoice; / And ye who cultivate the fertile glebe / Carrol the gladſome ſong. For you the plain / Shall wave with wheaten harveſts; and the gale / From blooming bean-fields ſhall diffuſe perfume.
Forms
- plural
- carols
- past tense
- caroled, carolled
- past participle
- caroled, carolled
- present participle
- caroling, carolling
- third person singular
- carols