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:
To put down the ideas in one’s head requires no one else—no friends, no neighbors, no jolly group.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 4, 2026
And maybe Van Dyke is a little like Santa: white hair, rosy cheeks, jolly and wholesome.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 2, 2026
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell may not be anyone’s idea of jolly, but he has still left something of a gift for Wall Street as Christmas approaches.
From Barron's ● Dec. 11, 2025
When embarking on technical descriptions, he often adds a touch of whimsy to jolly the reader along.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025
He said to her, “You’ve jolly good taste in clothes. Those trousers suit you especially well, I think.”
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
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
“They figured out, let’s appeal to folks who get their jollies making fun of the stroke dude,” Fetterman said on MSNBC.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 31, 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
The study also pondered on whether beards intensified a man’s character – making jolly men look jollier, angry men angrier.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 30, 2019
Basically, this is the same family crowd you might see on the weekends at the zoo, except much better dressed and maybe a bit jollier.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 21, 2014
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
“The world is chaos right now,” says Steven Davison, a phrase that contrasts with what just may be the jolliest job title in the lands.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2016
It’s as jolly as the jolliest Merseybeat song, as sentimental as a Wings album.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 23, 2016
It was the jolliest I’d see him all day.
From New York Times ● May 8, 2013
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
Set on a train to Chicago just before Christmas 1930, it is excruciatingly jollied up here, with audience participation during a jokily ad-libbed interlude in which some of the many roles are given to spectators.
From New York Times ● Dec. 21, 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
The author has more on her mind, however, than jollying readers with not-so-mock rock lyrics.
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
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
