frolic
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Dutch vrolijk (“cheerful”), from Middle Dutch vrolijc, from Old Dutch frōlīk, from Proto-Germanic *frawalīkaz. Compare German fröhlich (“blitheful, gaily, happy, merry”).
The first element, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *frawaz, is cognate with Middle English frow (“hasty”); the latter element, ultimately from *-līkaz, is cognate with -ly, -like.
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈfɹɒlɪk/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈfɹɑlɪk/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -ɒlɪk
- Hyphenation: frol‧ic
Adjective[edit]
frolic (comparative more frolic, superlative most frolic)
- (now rare) Merry, joyous, full of mirth; later especially, frolicsome, sportive, full of playful mischief. [from 1530s]
- 1645, John Milton, “L’Allegro”, in Poems[1], London: Humphrey Moseley, page 31:
- The frolick wind that breathes the Spring,
Zephyr with Aurora playing,
As he met her once a Maying
There on Beds of Violets blew,
- 1682, Edmund Waller, “Of Love” in Poems, &c. written upon several occasions, and to several persons, London: H. Herringman, 5th edition, 1686, p. 73,[2]
- For women, born to be controul’d,
- Stoop to the forward and the bold,
- Affect the haughty and the proud,
- The gay, the frollick, and the loud.
- 1766, Joseph Addison, The Spectator - Volume 5 - Page 304:
- You meet him at the tables and conversations of the wise, the impertinent, the grave, the frolic, and the witty; [...]
- 1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew:
- Beale, under this frolic menace, took nothing back at all; he was indeed apparently on the point of repeating his extravagence, but Miss Overmore instructed her little charge that she was not to listen to his bad jokes [...].
- (obsolete, rare) Free; liberal; bountiful; generous.
Verb[edit]
frolic (third-person singular simple present frolics, present participle frolicking, simple past and past participle frolicked)
- (intransitive) To make merry; to have fun; to romp; to behave playfully and uninhibitedly. [from 1580s]
- We saw the lambs frolicking in the meadow.
- (transitive, archaic) To cause to be merry.
Conjugation[edit]
Conjugation of frolic
infinitive | (to) frolic | ||
---|---|---|---|
present tense | past tense | ||
1st-person singular | frolic | frolicked | |
2nd-person singular | |||
3rd-person singular | frolics | ||
plural | frolic | ||
subjunctive | frolic | frolicked | |
imperative | frolic | — | |
participles | frolicking | frolicked |
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
behave playfully and uninhibitedly
|
Noun[edit]
frolic (plural frolics)
- Gaiety; merriment. [from 1610s]
- 1876, Louisa May Alcott, “The King of Clubs and the Queen of Hearts”, in Hallberger's Illustrated Magazine: 1876:
- the annual jubilee […] filled the souls of old and young with visions of splendour, frolic and fun.
- 2012 (original 1860), Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun - Page 276:
- By the old-fashioned magnificence of this procession, it might worthily have included his Holiness in person, with a suite of attendant Cardinals, if those sacred dignitaries would kindly have lent their aid to heighten the frolic of the Carnival.
- A playful antic.
- 1680, James Dillon, 3rd Earl of Roscommon, Art of Poetry:
- He would be at his frolic once again.
- (obsolete, chiefly US) A social gathering.
- 1820, Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:
- He came clattering up to the school door with an invitation to Ichabod to attend a merry-making or “quilting frolic,” to be held that evening at Mynheer Van Tassel’s
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
gaiety; merriment
playful antic
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also[edit]
Related terms[edit]
References[edit]
- John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “frolic”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *prew-
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *leyg- (like)
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- English terms derived from Middle Dutch
- English terms derived from Old Dutch
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English 2-syllable words
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