bally adj.
1. a general negative intensifier, a euph. for bloody adj.; thus bally heck, bloody hell.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Boston Globe (MA) 17 Apr. 13/2: ‘I am a bally ass — really’. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Sporting Times 1 Nov. 1/5: You must [...] have some sin on your mind, or you wouldn’t fear all the bally lighning in the world. | |
| Three Men in a Boat 26: Bally tent’s blown down, I think. | |
| Sporting Times 6 July Answers to Correspondents: H.G. Steele. – Thanks. What a bally idiot you must be [F&H]. | |
| Bird o’ Freedom 15 Jan. 1/3: Course I’m drunk [...] demned drunk; but I’ll get—get over it. But your a bally hog, and you’ll never get over it. | |
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 18 Oct. 4/3: If we wos [i.e. generals] — where’ your army? — Gone fut, / Knocked into a bally cocked ’at! | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | ‘His Country — After All’ in Roderick (1972) 203: I can’t see much in Australia. The bally colonies are —. | |
| Minor Dialogues 142: R.’s got a cold or some bally rot. | |
| [perf. Marie Lloyd] Maid of London Ere We Part 🎵 [Y]ou can keep the bally house and bally furniture. | |
| Lord Jim 147: Jove! wouldn’t do to lose the thing. He meditated gravely over his fist. Had it! Would hang the bally affair round his neck! | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 13 Nov. 4/7: They have made bally asses of themselves. | |
| New Boys’ World 29 Dec. 95: I was looking to see how many more bally idiots there were in this room. | |
| Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 13 Mar. 8/3: His examination of the lance with the ‘bally rag’ and his decision not to ‘chuck a dinner for a rotten battle’ evoked the heartiest merriment. | |
| Psmith in the City (1993) 35: It seems to me [...] that we are in for a pretty rotten time of it in this bally bank. | |
| Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 22 July 7/1: He was encored to the last breath after his rendering of ‘My bally eye glass’. | |
 | Truth (Wellington, NZ) 22 June 1/7: The mugs who went upon the stage to make bally fools of themselves were promised half-a-crown. | |
| Sport (Adelaide) 31 Jan. 9/4: They Say [...] Don’t be such a bally melon, Rita . | |
| diary 21 Sept. 🌐 Both feet went crook so went to see the quack. He never even looked at them [...] I’m a bally malingerer I suppose. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 119: Shut up, will you. Don’t make such a bally racket! | |
| Over the Top 111: Like a lot of bally idiots several of the battery men fell for their game. | |
| Two & Three 5 Apr. [synd. col.] We don’t know whether the bally referee was a believer in the ocult [sic]. | |
| Mufti 7: Derek scooped the bally lot as usual. | |
| Bulldog Drummond 111: And so he’s found the bally fox [...] What do we do, sergeant-major? | |
| Tell England (1965) 32: This bally book’s all wrong. | |
| Adventures of Mrs. May 62: My motter is same as my family’s, ‘Honest is ’er who ’as the bally pence’. | |
| Chillicothe (MO) Constitution 17 Jan. 3/4: [headline] Bally Amerian [sic] Slang A Bit Thick. Eh, What? | |
| Right Ho, Jeeves 62: The fellow’s bally life was being ruined by the loss of a girl. | |
| West. Australian (Perth) 6 June n.p.: These beastly fellahs should be shot: / Their bally beastly din / Is not quaite raight, not quaite. / What? What? | |
| Mating Season 69: Of course I want you to win the bally girl you love. | |
| Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 7: And I’m not sure it wasn’t ‘bally rot’. | |
| Tree of Man (1956) 57: We’re milkun the two big beasts hand over fist, and the bally heifer comun in. | |
| Jeeves in the Offing 59: Whether you liked the bally thing or didn’t, the point was that it had vanished. | |
| Concrete Kimono 125: Think it’s some bally palais-de-dance, Trenton? | |
| ‘Pinball Wizard’ 🎵 I thought I was the bally table king / But I just handed my pinball crown to him. | |
| Family Arsenal 28: Where would I park the bally thing? | |
| Therapy (1996) 12: There’s no bally reason why the knee should be giving you any more pain. | |
| Guardian G2 18 May 1: Crikey, Biggles, they’re turning you into a bally Hollywood hero. |
2. (Aus.) as infix.
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| Sun. Times (Perth) 15 May 2nd sect. 12/5: Gentleman of Chinese nationality. Promoting Literature and Education. Oh, cli! Hoo-bally lay! |