molly

molly

See also: Molly

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɒli/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑli/

• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -ɒli
• Homophones: mollie, Mollie, Molly

Etymology 1

From Molly, the personal name, a pet form of Mary. In some cases it is possibly derived from mollitia (“softness, weakness”). Drug sense probably influenced by the initial of MDMA.[1]

Noun

molly (countable and uncountable, plural mollies)

1. (now chiefly Ireland) A woman or girl, especially of low status.
2. (slang) An effeminate male, a male homosexual.
3. (slang, uncountable) Pure MDMA powder.

   Synonym: mandy

   • 2013, “We Can’t Stop”, in Bangerz, performed by Miley Cyrus:

     So la-da-di-da-di, we like to party / Dancing with Molly / Doing whatever we want

4. A mollemoke.
5. A female cat, a she-cat (usually spayed)
6. A bird, the wagtail.
7. A molly bolt.

Derived terms

• mollycoddle
• molly-guard

Verb

molly (third-person singular simple present mollies, present participle mollying, simple past and past participle mollied)

1. To engage in (male) homosexual activity with.
   • 1998, Netta Murray Goldsmith, The Worst of Crimes, page 79:

     I said, "I never mollied you." My Lord, I never laid Hands upon him, nor touch'd him.

   • 2007, Matt Cook, A Gay History of Britain:

     On one occasion, Partridge was nearly mobbed in a molly-house when some men called him a 'treacherous, blowing-up, mollying bitch, and swore they'd massacre anybody that should betray them.'

   • 2017, Peter Ackroyd, Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day:

     It is a case of the biter bit, or the molly-taker mollied, but it is also an interesting example of the ways in which the criminal underworld and sexual underworld met in eighteenth-century London

See also

• moll

Etymology 2

From Mollienesia, an invalid taxonomic name for the genus, influenced by the personal name Molly.

Noun

molly (plural mollies)

1. A fish of the genus Poecilia, except for those known as guppies.

Translations

fish

Finnish: molli (fi) Spanish: chimbolo Swedish: molly (sv), lyrmolly c

See also

• guppy

Noun

molly (plural mollies)

1. (India, South Asia) Alternative spelling of mali (“a member of a caste in South Asia whose traditional occupation is gardening; hence, any South Asian gardener”).

References

1. “molly”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.