jolly adj.
tipsy, drunk.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Herodian 56: In his Tipsy Cups when he was Jolly [OED]. | |
 | et al. ‘An Answer’ Wit and Drollery 68: Mortalls tipple, mortalls tipple [...] Boon Companions will though jolly, Shrink in over-wetting streames. | |
| Gentlemen’s Journal Mar. 57: Wine alone can make us jolly [F&H]. | |
| York Spy 12: A Jolly Suck-Bottle, who was unfortunately decoyed into the wrangling state of Matrimony. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Drinkers Dictionary’ in Pennsylvania Gazette 6 Jan. in AS XII:2 91: They come to be well understood to signify plainly that A MAN IS DRUNK. [...] Jolly. | |
| Life and Character of Moll King 12: I shall see my jolly old Codger by the Tinney-side. | |
| Midnight Spy 109: A parcel of jolly bucks. | |
| Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 8: All these red-nosed jolly fellows. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Man of the World Act II: O, devilish jolly! — devilish jolly! — he and the Captain are two of the hardest drinkers in the country. | |
| ‘The Nightingale-Club’ Universal Songster I 1: Bravo! bravo! very well sung, / Jolly companions every one. | |
| Pickwick Papers (1999) 307: The gen’lm’n as beat his wife with the poker, venever he got jolly. | |
| Poor Jack 364: We [...] found the privateer’s-men getting very jolly; but they did not offer us anything to drink. | |
| Pic-nic Sketches 107: I can’t cry good when I’m jolly. | |
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Oct. 63/1: We got mighty jolly o’er our wine! | |
| (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor III 249/1: I was obliged to drink. I’ve got ‘jolly’ now and then, but I never made a habit of it. | |
| Queen’s Sailors III 295: Tortle [...] was so ‘jolly’. | |
| My Secret Life (1966) VI 1163: Betsy had had so much liquor that she was very jolly. | |
| Three Men in a Boat 157: They had a very jolly evening and sat up late, and, by the time they came to go to bed they [...] were slightly jolly, too. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bird o’ Freedom (Sydney) 14 Mar. 2/2: ‘I can go to Sydney and come home again without getting jolly’. | |
| Stories of Chinatown 8: They’re feeling pretty jol in there. | |
| Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life II 195: He became exceedingly jolly, and sang several songs. | |
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 10 Aug. 3/5: ‘You always notice when I’m a bit jolly, but never when I’m thirsty’. | |
| Denton Journal (MD) 7 Mar. 3/8: I’ve been wetting it pretty well today. I feel pretty jolly now and I shouldn’t wonder if I went home loaded. | |
| Rebellion of Leo McGuire (1953) 52: She and Clarence Hurst got a little drunk [...] and we were all very jolly together. | |
| Short History of Drunkenness 26: So how did the average Sumerian get jolly? |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
an ironic description of a criminal.
| Pelham III 327: If he escapes, I must leave England, perhaps, for ever, for fear of the jolly boys. |
see separate entry.
see under member n.1
the head.
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: I’ll lump your jolly nob for you, I’ll give you a knock on the head. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Pierce Egan’s Life in London 26 Sept. 5/3: Spring’s blows fell in showers upon Cribb’s jolly-nob. |
the penis.
| (con. 1970s) King Suckerman (1998) 175: A girl like that could suck on my jolly stick for real. |
In phrases
sexually available.
| Maledicta IX 144: They are jolly for polly, polly because of parrots (‘money talks’) or […] because of lolly = money. |
In exclamations
(UK juv.) wonderful! excellent! fantastic!
| Complete Molesworth (1985) 106: Acktually you are jolly d. and it is sad to leave. |