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jolly

adjectifnomadverbeverbecourant dans les dialogues

  • Royaume-Uni//ˈd͡ʒɒli//
  • États-Unis//ˈd͡ʒɑli//

Full of merriment and high spirits; jovial; joyous; merry.

adjectif

  1. 1

    Full of merriment and high spirits; jovial; joyous; merry.

    "Full jolly Knight he seemed […] full large of limb and every joint / He was, and cared not for God or man a point."

    "A jolly place," said he, "in times of old! / But something ails it now: the spot is curst. ..."

    […] he is swelled into jolly dimensions by frequent potations of malt liquors […]

  2. 2

    vieilliSplendid, excellent, pleasant.

    Jo silently notices how white and small her hand is and what a jolly servant she must be to wear such sparkling rings.

  3. 3

    familierDrunk.

Étymologie

From Middle English joli, jolif (“merry, cheerful”), from Old French joli, jolif (“merry, joyful”). For the loss of final -f in English, 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.

nom

  1. 1

    A pleasure trip or excursion; especially, an expenses-paid or unnecessary one.

    If you know what it means to be a “fidlet” going for a “jolly” in your “doo”, then you are part of an exclusive club that speaks colloquial Antarctic English.

  2. 2

    vieilliA marine in the English navy.

    I'm a Jolly — 'Er Majesty's Jolly — soldier an' sailor too!

  3. 3

    archaïqueA word of praise, or favorable notice.

    'We just need to chuck him a jolly.' 'I beg your pardon?' said Faber. 'Chuck a jolly... you know! Get people on the street talking about how amazing the show is! Tell them the tickets are sold out for the next two weeks.'

  4. 4

    Variante de jolly boatEllipsis of jolly boat.

    Indeed it is nearly impossible to conceive how the small jolly they were in could have escaped destruction for a single instant.

adverbe

  1. 1

    vieilliVery, extremely.

    It’s jolly hot in here, isn’t it?

    “Put these on,” said Carrot firmly, anticipating resistance. “What is it?” said Catweazle in horror. “Coms. Combinations. A vest and long pants all in one,” explained Carrot. “They're jolly warm.”

    He'll think about paint and he'll think about glue / What a jolly boring thing to do

    Adrian thought it worth while to try out his new slang. ‘I say, you fellows, here's a rum go. Old Biffo was jolly odd this morning. He gave me a lot of pi-jaw about slacking and then invited me to tea. No rotting! He did really.’

verbe

  1. 1

    To amuse or divert.

  2. 2

    archaïqueTo praise or talk up.

    I do not believe in 'jollying' and 'soft soaping' a man when his work is really bad.

Formes

pluriel
jollies
comparatif
jollier, more jolly
superlatif
jolliest, most jolly
passé
jollied
participe passé
jollied
participe présent
jollying
3ᵉ personne du singulier
jollies
Les pages voisinesL'ordre alphabétique suit les règles de la langue, pas la valeur des octets : un accent ne départage que deux mots par ailleurs identiques, et l'espagnol range le Ñ comme une lettre à part entière.

Contenu lexical issu du Wiktionary, sous licence CC BY-SA 4.0 · Entrée d'origine · Version des données 2026-08-23

Rang parmi les mots du corpus OpenSubtitles 2018 — des sous-titres de films et de séries, donc de la langue parlée et non écrite (CC BY-SA 3.0).