Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the head [abbr. jolly nob under jolly adj.].

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.

2. an accomplice [? they ‘jolly one along’].

1861		H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor IV 25: the dependents of cheats are – 1. ‘Jollies,’ and ‘Magsmen,’ or accomplices of the ‘Bouncers and Besters.’.
1869		J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London 88: One who assists at a sham street row for the purpose of creating a mob, and promoting robbery from the person – a jolly.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 5: Jollies and Bouncers - Dependants and pals of bouncers and besters.

3. a marine; thus tame jolly, a militiaman; royal jolly, a royal marine [OED suggests n. use of SE jolly, cheerful, gallant, brave etc, but Bowen (Sea Slang, 1929) and Fraser & Gibbons (1925) say it was adapted from the nickname of the City Trained Bands, a ‘Tame Jolly’ (which may also have come from SE)].

1829		Marryat Life of Frank Mildmay II 11: The jollies fired tolerably well did they?
1838		‘Nights At Sea’ in Bentley’s Misc. Apr. 594: I gets the four jollies and the cutter’s crew all ship-shape.
1840		E. Howard Jack Ashore I 37: This jolly, or private marine [...] had mysteriously disappeared with his charge.
1851		Melville Moby Dick (1907) 154: The squall! the squall! jump, my jollies!
1858		Bell’s Life in Sydney 7 Aug. 3/3: [heading] Poor Joe the Marine] [...] ranged up with the three ‘Jollies’ as aiders and abettors.
1867		W.H. Smyth Sailor’s Word-Bk (1991) 413: Jolly. [...] it is a familiar name for a soldier, – Tame jolly, a militia man; royal jolly, a marine.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1883		Graphic 12 May 487, col. 3: The Marine... not being either a soldier or a sailor, was generally described as a joey, a jolly, a shell-back, etc [F&H].
1896		Kipling Seven Seas 176: I’m a Jolly — ’Er Majesty’s Jolly — Soldier and Sailor too.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 27 July 6/2: Twice the ‘jolly’ dropped Cartwright with clean punches.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 132: Jolly, A: A Marine.
1945		D. Bolster Roll On My Twelve 135: Jollies ... Royal Marines.
1978		A. Burgess 1985 (1980) 156: Hermaphrodite [...] Kipling used it of the Royal Marines, His Majesty’s jollies.

4. pertaining to speech.

5. a deception or hoax.

1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 8/1: [They] are on the look out for a ‘flat,’ whom they intend to ‘rope in’ if he will only stand the ‘jolly’.
1879		‘Autobiog. of a Thief’ in Macmillan’s Mag. (London) XL 504: I see a reeler giving me a roasting (watching me), so I began to count my pieces for a jolly (pretence).
1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 68: I’m died sure, only me friend de barkeep and dat odder goil helps long de jolly.
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 43: jolly, n. A story trumped up to deceive.
1914		E. Dyson Spats’ Fact’ry (1922) 38: That ole mother, ’r them aunts [...] is jist a jolly t’ stave off the fatal day when the registra sez, ‘Sign ’ere’.

6. a party, a merry-making [abbr. SE jollification].

1892		W. Norr Stories of Chinatown 70: This is your last night down here, and you might as well have a little jol.
1901		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 50: Dan Honig after a jolly.
1902		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden and Mr Paul 12: [He] is trying to do by a jolly what de British tried to do by a scrap a hundred and twenty-five years ago.
1906		Burra Record (SA) 31 Oct. 3/6: They Say [...] That Christina Schultze had a ‘jolly’ in Kooringa on Thursday afternoon, and finished the last act in the police court.
2000		Indep. Rev. 3 Mar. 15: This is no more than an office jolly for the hard-working drones of the music industry.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 21: This isn’t a jolly for Mister Mortimer.
2015		Indep. on Sunday 25 Oct. 🌐 There were parties, there were epic benders, and there were jollies galore.

7. (also jollies) a thrill of pleasure or excitement.

1879		M.E. Braddon Cloven Foot I 120: It was a wonderful sight. The athletics called it ‘no end of jolly’.
1884		Sporting Times 6 Sept. 1/4: I shall [...] get fired out of the Gaiety and the Empire. That will give him a jolly.
1899		Ade Fables in Sl. (1902) 7: Moral A good Jolly is worth Whatever you Pay for it.
1902		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden and Mr Paul 93: What ’s de matter wit a Bowery goil dat ’s fly enough to give you a jolly once in a while, in American style?
1912		Bobby Jones ‘Everybody Loves a Chicken’ 🎵 Then you think of all the jolly that you had with Dolly.
1969		C. Sellers Where Have All the Soldiers Gone 36: ‘Tyree is a mean son of a bitch who gets his jollies by killing’.
1982		G. Tate ‘Beyond the Zone of the Zero Funkativity’ in Flyboy in the Buttermilk (1992) 41: Fusing the dance-floor funk-intellechy of Parliament and the hardcore jollies of Funkadelic.
2001		K. Waterhouse Soho 68: She would retire home after what she would call a day’s jollies [...] at six p.m.
2007		Observer Mag. 30 Sept. 10: Fans of sneezing stars get their jollies at www.celebrity allergyarchive.
2012		I. Rankin Standing in Another Man’s Grave (2013) 370: I think he gets his jollies sticking his fingers up to the rest of us.
2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers [24]: [I]f I’d relied on a poxy fucking football team to give me ma jollies in life [etc].
2022		J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 259: ‘I’m not getting my jollies by checking out your crotch’.

8. (US, also jollies) an orgasm.

1966		H.S. Thompson Hell’s Angels (1967) 199: A lot of women can’t make it with just one guy at a time, they can’t get their jollies.
2011		D.R. Pollock Devil All the Time 177: [T]aking her out for a trial run, watch a hitcher get his jollies with her while he took some pictures.
2023		Twitter 10 Jan. 🌐 Man who has terrorised women [...] burglarising their homes to steal their underwear for his jollies, has faced court today. Police found over 5000 individual clothing items in his bedroom.

9. (also jollies) sexual play, whether or not including intercourse.

1998

P. McCabe Breakfast on Pluto 33: Then — off I’d go, down on my knees and croooning away — but not for fun-time jollies only.

10. see jollier n. (1)