dolly

[ dol-ee ]

/ ˈdɒl i /

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noun, plural dol·lies.

Informal. a doll.

a low truck or cart with small wheels for moving loads too heavy to be carried by hand.

Movies, Television. a small wheeled platform, usually having a short boom, on which a camera can be mounted for making moving shots.

Machinery. a tool for receiving and holding the head of a rivet while the other end is being headed.

a block placed on the head of a pile being driven to receive the shock of the blows.

a small locomotive operating on narrow-gauge tracks, especially in quarries, construction sites, etc.

a short, wooden pole with a hollow dishlike base for stirring clothes while laundering them.

Slang. a tablet of Dolophine.

Also called dolly bird .British Informal. an attractive girl or young woman.

(sometimes initial capital letter)Slang. an affectionate or familiar term of address, as to a child or romantic partner (sometimes offensive when used to strangers, casual acquaintances, subordinates, etc., especially by a male to a female).

verb (used with object), dol·lied, dol·ly·ing.

to transport or convey (a camera) by means of a dolly.

verb (used without object), dol·lied, dol·ly·ing.

to move a camera on a dolly, especially toward or away from the subject being filmed or televised (often followed by in or out): to dolly in for a close-up.

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Origin of dolly

1600–10; 1900–05 for def. 9; doll + -y²

Other definitions for dolly (2 of 2)

Dolly

or Dol·lie

[ dol-ee ]

/ ˈdɒl i /

noun

a female given name, form of Doll.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use dolly in a sentence

It was Dollie Blossom's fifth birthday, and Dollie's mamma had arranged for a little party in honor of the event.
Fun And Frolic|Various
At last, wearying of this, she said—“Now Bobby, you sit right still like a mouse while Birdie goes and fetches out her dollie.”
Nan of the Gypsies|Grace May North
I asked Dollie Gentry, who had grasped my arm as if she would ring it from my shoulder.
The Price of the Prairie|Margaret Hill McCarter
The papers on the top shelves had been on there fifteen minutes, and Aunt Dollie thought they'd better put up clean ones.
The Price of the Prairie|Margaret Hill McCarter

Dollie Gentry would have cracked his head with her rolling pin before she let him go.
The Price of the Prairie|Margaret Hill McCarter

British Dictionary definitions for dolly

dolly

/ (ˈdɒlɪ) /

noun plural -lies

a child's word for a doll

films television a wheeled support on which a camera may be mounted

a cup-shaped anvil held against the head of a rivet while the other end is being hammered

a shaped block of lead used to hammer dents out of sheet metal

a distance piece placed between the head of a pile and the pile-driver to form an extension to the length of the pile

cricket a simple catch

Also called: dolly bird slang, mainly British an attractive and fashionable girl, esp one who is considered to be unintelligent

verb -lies, -lying or -lied

films television to wheel (a camera) backwards or forwards on a dolly

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for dolly

Dolly

The first mammal successfully cloned — Dolly, a sheep — was born in 1996 in Scotland as the result of work by biologist Ian Wilmut (see clone). The procedure that produced Dolly involved removing the nucleus from an egg cell and placing the nucleus of an adult sheep's mammary cell into it. Further manipulations caused the egg to “turn on” all genes and develop like a normal zygote. (See totipotency.)

dolly

Origin of dolly

Other definitions for dolly (2 of 2)

or Dol·lie

Words related to dolly

How to use dolly in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for dolly

Cultural definitions for dolly