Dolly Varden

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English[edit]

Dolly Varden dress and hat
Dolly Varden trout, Salvelinus malma

Etymology[edit]

After a lively, coquettish character in Charles Dickens' novel Barnaby Rudge.

Noun[edit]

Dolly Varden (plural Dolly Vardens)

  1. A woman's outfit, briefly fashionable in Britain and America in the late nineteenth century, with a brightly patterned, usually flowered, dress with a polonaise overskirt gathered up and draped over a separate underskirt.
  2. A large hat, one side bent downwards, abundantly trimmed with flowers.
  3. Short for Dolly Varden crab.
  4. Short for Dolly Varden trout.
    • 2017 November–December, Dean Oelschig, “Kamchatka: 61 Hours from Jo'burg”, in The Mission: The Cult of Fly Fishing, number 6, pages 54–55:
      Dolly Varden is the staple catch. To a point that, after two days, we find ourselves feeling guilty trying to shake them free from our fly or giving plenty of slack in the hope that another Dolly finds early freedom. [] Often the biggest challenge of hooking a big trout is avoiding Dollies.

Derived terms[edit]