jolly

Universal Words adjective, adverb, verb adjective (jollier, jolliest) 1 happy and cheerful: a jolly crowd / face / mood 2 (old-fashioned) enjoyable: a jolly evening / party / time jollity noun [U] (old-fashioned): scenes of high-spirits and jollity adverb (old-fashioned, BrE, informal) very: That's a jolly good idea. * It was jolly lucky it didn't rain. IDIOMS jolly good! (old-fashioned, BrE, spoken) used to show that you approve of sth that sb has just said: 'I'll be there by ten o'clock.' 'Jolly good!' jolly well (old-fashioned, BrE) used to emphasize a statement when you are annoyed about sth: If you don't come now, you can jolly well walk home! verb (jollies, jollying, jollied, jollied) (BrE) PHRASALVERBS jolly sb along to encourage sb in a cheerful way jolly sb into sth / into doing sth to persuade or encourage sb to do sth by making them feel happy about it jolly sb/sth up to make sb/sth more cheerful: You need jollying up!