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.
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Another film, “Gasman,” was full of jolly japes about everyday corruption.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 13, 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
The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index, at 52.9, was a touch below expectations of 53.4, but Wall Street was still in a jolly mood following yesterday’s cooler-than-expected consumer price index.
From Barron's ● Dec. 20, 2025
Otto was considered the jolly, good-natured one among the brothers-in-law.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
When they return from their jollies, they will have the task of keeping the Ashes alive past Christmas.
From BBC ● Dec. 7, 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
The mercurial Mr. Musk said he wasn’t asking just for the jollies.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 18, 2022
“I get my jollies serving people,” he says, “So, I made good burgers and I served good coffee.”
From Seattle Times ● May 10, 2022
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. 18, 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
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
What could be jollier on Christmas Day than a fresh instalment of one of the NFL’s most bitter rivalries?
From The Guardian ● Dec. 23, 2016
If Penelope had been in a jollier mood, the idea of Mrs. Clarke in a pair of ice skates, gracefully twirling and leaping across a frozen expanse, would have made her struggle not to laugh.
From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood
If you feel ... 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 the jolliest thing in the show: a synchronized dance to the Pussycat Dolls song “When I Grow Up,” performed in heels, wigs and diaphanous floral-print caftans.
From New York Times ● Apr. 12, 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
And the man he was holding it for was the jolliest, fat, apple-cheeked, twinkling-eyed King you could imagine.
From "The Horse and His Boy" by C.S. Lewis
The audience is jollied along by Veneziale with polite puckishness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2022
What befalls Malvolio is the one indelible blot on Shakespeare’s play: recreational cruelty that can’t be jollied away.
From New York Times ● Jul. 12, 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
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
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
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
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
