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Dolly

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dolly¹

  • /ˈdɑli/ US
  • /ˈdɒli/ UK

Rhymes with -ɒli

Where it comes from

From doll + -y, from the given name Dorothy, originally applied either to a woman or female pet or to a children's toy, and expanded to refer to various types of contrivances or devices. The Online Etymology Dictionary, while considering the reason for applying it to such devices unobvious, compares how the names jack, jenny and jimmy are also applied to devices.

noun dollies · dollie

  1. childish, colloquial A doll. ‘He pushed one of my dolly’s eyes in,’ sobbed Dora, hugging her dolly as she replied.
  2. A roughly cylindrical wooden object used as a base when molding pie crust.
  3. A disc with downward legs and a vertical handle, used for agitating laundry. LAUNDRY. 1 Dolly tub and pegs 2 Mangle 3 Washing machine
  4. A device turned on a vertical axis by a handle or a winch, giving a circular motion to ore being washed. The dolly tub or rinsing bucket, fig. 630., has an upright shaft which bears the vane or dolly a b, turned by the winch handle.
  5. A tool with an indented head for shaping the head of a rivet. A, is the steam or air cylinder for forcing the dolly B, hard against the rivet head while rivetting: when used for making rivets the dolly B, is unshipped, and the rivet heading apparatus substituted.
  6. In pile driving, a block interposed between the head of the pile and the ram of the driver.
  7. A small truck with a single wide roller used for moving heavy beams, columns, etc., in bridge building.
  8. proscribed, sometimes Synonym of hand truck (an L-shaped box-moving handcart with handles at one end).
  9. A moving dolly; a small, flat, rectangular platform on wheels, made to be slipped under a piece of furniture or other load.
  10. An unpowered vehicle (trailer) designed for connection to a tractor unit, truck or prime mover vehicle, with strong traction power.
  11. A compact, narrow-gauge locomotive used for moving construction trains, switching, etc.
  12. A specialized piece of film equipment resembling a little cart on which a camera is mounted.
  13. slang A young woman, especially one who is frivolous or vapid. But really you get your money from selling things — that's your line, and your Dad's isn't it? Using sexy dollies to con money out of people who've had to work for it. Well my daughter's not just a sugar-plum fairy to titillate men's fantasies, you know.
  14. UK, dated, slang A fashionable young woman, one who follows the latest music or clothing fashions. Spotlight on the other hand is remarkable for prices and skirt lengths to suit the teenyboppers[…] Appeal: to a lunchtime horde of date-going dollies who cannot really afford another dress.
  15. dated A ball hit by a batsman such that it goes gently to a fielder for a simple catch.
  16. A marker placed on the winning number by the dealer at roulette.
  17. abbreviation, ellipsis Ellipsis of dolly shop.dolly shop There’s 2d. a week to pay for 1s. at a dolly, and perhaps an old rug left for it; if it’s very hard weather, the rug must be taken at night time, or we are starved with the cold. It sometimes has to be put into the dolly again next morning, and then there’s 2d. to pay for it for the day.
  18. obsolete An old gambling device, found in dolly shops, with the figure of an old man or "dolly", and a spiral hole down which a dropped marble would proceed to one of a set of numbered holes.

verb dollies · dollying · dollied · dollie

  1. transitive To hit a dolly.
  2. transitive To move (an object) using a dolly.
  3. intransitive To move a camera (usually toward or away from its subject) using a dolly.
  4. transitive To wash (laundry) in a tub using the stirring device called a dolly.
  5. transitive To beat (red-hot metal) with a hammer.
  6. transitive To crush ore with a dolly.
  7. often, with up To make somebody or something look attractive. Referring to the "hero of the day," No. 92220, Mr. Hanks acceded that she was not of the Great Western breed, but they had done their best to make up for that by "dollying her up in good old Western colours and conferring upon her the finest honour we can—the halo or crown of Swindon, the copper top

dolly²

  • /ˈdɑli/ US
  • /ˈdɒli/ UK

Rhymes with -ɒli

Where it comes from

Disputed. Most scholars derive the term from doll + -y, as Etymology 1, above. Linguist Ian Hancock, however, suggests derivation from Italian dolce (“sweet”).

adjective more dolly · most dolly

  1. Polari Pretty; attractive. Divine. Sitting, sipping a tiny drinkette, vadaïng the great butch omis and dolly little palones trolling by, or disporting yourself on the sable plage getting your lallies all bronzed - your riah getting bleached by the soleil.
  2. Sheffield, Yorkshire, especially Left-handed (also dolly-handed, dolly-pawed, dolly-posh).

dolly³

  • /ˈdɑli/ US
  • /ˈdɒli/ UK

Rhymes with -ɒli

Where it comes from

From Hindi डाली (ḍālī).

noun dollies · dally

  1. India An offering of fruit or flowers. In some parts of India the dolly has grown into an extravagance consisting sometimes of bushels of fruit, nuts, and confectionery, with bottles of champagne and liqueurs.

Dolly⁴

proper noun Dollys

  1. A diminutive of the female given names Dorothy, Dolores, and Doris. Her name is Dorothy, though everyone has always called her Dolly. I do not know why, for there is nothing doll-like about her. She is a large, vigorous woman with the broad face and heavy hair of a tinker's wife.

noun Dollies

  1. abbreviation, ellipsis Ellipsis of Dolly Parton.Dolly Parton
  2. abbreviation, ellipsis Ellipsis of Dolly Varden trout.Dolly Varden trout Dolly Varden is the staple catch. To a point that, after two days, we find ourselves feeling guilty trying to shake them free from our fly or giving plenty of slack in the hope that another Dolly finds early freedom. […] Often the biggest challenge of hooking a big trout is avoiding Dollies.

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