drollery
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Alternative forms
- drolerie (archaic)
Etymology
From French drôlerie, from drôle + -erie; equivalent to droll + -ery.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈdɹəʊləɹi/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Noun
drollery (countable and uncountable, plural drolleries)
- Comical quality.
- 1915, W.S. Maugham, Of Human Bondage, chapter 121:
- He found that Sally had a restrained, but keen, sense of the ridiculous, and she made remarks about the girls or the men who were set over them which amused him by their unexpected drollery.
- 1941 January, C. Hamilton Ellis, “The Scottish Station”, in Railway Magazine, page 1:
- You might be impressed by the simultaneous appearance of "Cardeans", "Clans" and North British Atlantics, or engaged by the drolleries of the three shunting engines, one from each company.
- Amusing behavior.
- Something humorous, funny or comical.
- 1963, J P Donleavy, A Singular Man, published 1963 (USA), page 252:
- "I'm pregnant."
"No drolleries this morning please."
"Three months."
- (archaic) A puppet show; a comic play or entertainment; a comic picture; a caricature.
- 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 13:
- Sebastian: A liuing Drolerie : now I will beleeue
That there are Vnicornes : that in Arabia
There is one Tree, the Phœnix throne, one Phœnix
At this houre reigning there.
- A joke; a funny story.
- A small decorative image in the margin of an illuminated manuscript.
Translations
comical quality
|
amusing behavior
|
a puppet show
References
- John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “drollery”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
