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.

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.

Derived terms

• molly miller

Translations

fish

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

See also

• guppy

Etymology 3

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”).

See also

terms containing "molly" (probably etymologically unrelated)

• hairy molly
• hog molly
• mollydocker
• molly house
• molly miller
• molly wop

 

Further reading

• Jonathon Green (2024) “molly n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang