jolly
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The few talks that took place were, as he recalled, such jolly affairs.
From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2026
America’s retailers are feeling jolly heading into the busy fall shopping season.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
And if she'd jolly well kept herself to herself and been nominated as a leading actress they would have nominated me in supporting.
From BBC ● Mar. 12, 2026
And maybe Van Dyke is a little like Santa: white hair, rosy cheeks, jolly and wholesome.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 2, 2026
“So I did, Beth. Well, I think we are. For though we do have to work, we make fun of ourselves, and are a pretty jolly set, as Jo would say.”
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
Despite the gags and attention from Australian media about their time on the beach, England probably put in their best performance of a bad bunch in the Test after their jollies in Noosa.
From BBC ● Dec. 21, 2025
Sunday was a tough day for those, like me, who get their entertainment jollies by watching losers try to redeem themselves.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 22, 2024
“I get my jollies serving people,” he says, “So, I made good burgers and I served good coffee.”
From Seattle Times ● May 10, 2022
Keep the elves and the jollies and the funny caps.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 23, 2021
Basically, if you get your jollies crawling on your hands and knees digging up fossilized poop, then you’ll really love an office full of the real thing—smell included.
From "Linked" by Gordon Korman
It also makes “Peacemaker” a jollier and more complicated view into the DC world than those we see in the movies because Chris Smith isn’t merely human, he’s average.
From Salon ● Feb. 17, 2022
Even the jollier song “Perfect Wife,” with its upbeat drums and lively flutes, feels somber in the broader context of the project.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 30, 2021
The phrase “party season” makes December sound like a choreographed procession of sparkly red carpet moments that, even in jollier years, didn’t quite chime with reality.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 18, 2019
No odyssey was ever jollier, more symmetrical, or less characterized by either travel or solitude than this dance.
From New York Times ● Feb. 2, 2018
Did he want me to, I don’t know...be jollier during that one practice I had attended?
From "Here to Stay" by Sara Farizan
However, if you feel that level of pettiness in your soul, wishing the world a Happy Festivus may be one of the jolliest things you can do.
From Salon ● Dec. 23, 2022
“It’s not happy. I don’t want to compare it to a concentration camp or something of that nature, but it’s definitely not the jolliest of places.”
From The Guardian ● May 22, 2020
When people ask me what life was like as a kid, I always say, “Oh, lovely. I always had the jolliest home life.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2019
It’s as jolly as the jolliest Merseybeat song, as sentimental as a Wings album.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 23, 2016
Let’s just say, they’re not the jolliest of giants, those three stone brothers.
From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson
The audience is jollied along by Veneziale with polite puckishness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2022
These weren’t people jollied by the guy with the funny hair.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 30, 2021
It was a perfect misunderstanding, between two strangers who’d been jollied into conjunction by a go-between—me, that is.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 2, 2019
“The Long Christmas Dinner,” a comedy dappled with dolor, mostly comes off well until the director substitutes a sentimental ending for Wilder’s sad one, but “Pullman Car Hiawatha” is excruciatingly jollied up.
From New York Times ● Dec. 31, 2015
Then Big Ma, who’d been jollied out of her fussing, was once again sharp and angry.
From "Gone Crazy in Alabama" by Rita Williams-Garcia
It seems churlish to begrudge any efforts to spread positivity – but his messages can smack of a jollying stranger telling you to smile.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 2, 2018
I got some news to tell ya, Woahoho About some wild, wild life Wild Wild Life, currently jollying up Top 40 radio, could be the Heads' happiest hit yet.
From Time Magazine Archive
The author has more on her mind, however, than jollying readers with not-so-mock rock lyrics.
From Time Magazine Archive
But he keeps flirting with girls, joking with small children, jollying jaundiced drivers along, all the while methodically stacking their dollar bills and making little quarter-nickel-dime pyramids for change.
From Time Magazine Archive
He was everywhere at once, pushing, pulling, sawing, hammering, improvising, jollying everyone along with comradely exhortations and giving out from every fold of his body what seemed an inexhaustible supply of acrid-smelling sweat.
From "1984" by George Orwell
