▪ I. molly, n.1
(ˈmɒlɪ)
Also 8 molley, 8– mollie.
[f. moll n.1 1 + -y.]
1. (With capital M.) A familiar pet-form of the name Mary; often applied contemptuously to a ‘lass’, ‘wench’, and occas. to a prostitute. (Cf. moll.)
| 1719 D'Urfey Pills I. 5 Town follies and Cullies, And Molleys and Dolleys, For ever adieu. 1819 Shelley Peter Bell 3rd vi. xxxii, 'Twould make George Colman melancholy To have heard him, like a male Molly, Chanting those stupid staves. 1890 Gloucester Gloss. 97 The men and girls [at a hiring-fair] are called ‘Johnnies and Mollies’. |
2. An effeminate man or boy; a milksop. Miss Molly, in the same sense (cf. Miss Nancy, miss n.2 3 b); hence Miss Mollyism. Cf. molly-coddle.
| 1754 W. Whitehead World No. 58 ¶1 If he goes to school, he will be perpetually teized by the nick-name of Miss Molly. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. T., Molly, a miss Molly, an effeminate fellow, a sodomite. 1816 ‘Quiz’ Grand Master i. 19 In fact, a specimen of folly, A semi-ver [sic], a mere Miss Molly. 1834 J. Wilson in Blackw. Mag. XXXVI. 843 It would be sad..if John Bull were to be emasculated by Miss-Mollyism. 1879 L. B. Walford Cousins III. 172 Simon is not a molly, whatever he may be. 1884 Illustr. Lond. News 18 Oct. 363/3 When a man makes a ‘molly’ of himself by describing the work of the housemaid. 1901 ‘R. Connor’ Man fr. Glengarry vii, The Langfords are regular Mollies. |
3. A large basket used for packing fruit, etc.
| 1883 Newspaper, Pears, 2s. to 4s. per molley;..walnuts, 3s. 6d. to 4s. 6d. per molley. 1885 Standard 11 Sept., Innumerable ‘mollies’ (big baskets) of plums. 1898 Gard. Mag. 3 Sept. 581/1 Dutch [pears], 2s. to 2s. 6d. per molly. |
4. Special combinations: Molly cotton-tail U.S. = cotton-tail; Molly dancer dial. (see quots.); molly-head slang, a ‘soft-head’, simpleton; molly-mop, an effeminate man; Molly washdish, the pied wagtail, Motacilla lugubris.
| 1859 Bartlett Dict. Amer., *Molly Cotton-tail, a rabbit. 1885 Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888) V. 78 Molly Cotton-tail. |
| 1959 I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. xii. 261 In north Manchester, gangs of boys calling themselves ‘*Molly Dancers’ wear old clothes, mostly women's, and make-up their faces, and go around singing..‘Spare a copper for the Molly dancers’. 1971 Jrnl. Lancs. Dial. Soc. xx. 8 Molly Dancers, performers of a traditional folk play, of which a number survived in North Staffordshire into the 1930's. I assume the phrase to be a popular etymology for Morris Dancers. |
| 1902 Munsey's Mag. XXVI. 492/1 Stephens is in it to pass the stuff to the *mollyheads that can't be got at without him. |
| 1829 Marryat F. Mildmay xvi, I'll disrate you,..you d—d *molly mop. |
| 1885 Swainson Prov. Names Birds 44 Pied Wagtail (Motacilla lugubris)... *Molly washdish. |
Hence † ˈmollyish a.
| 1801 Dibdin Frisk, Jack at the Opera iii, If it wasn't for the petticoat gear, With their squeaking, so mollyish, tender, and soft, One should scarcely know ma'am from mounseer. |
Add: [4.] molly-house hist., in 18th- and 19th-century England, a public house, tavern, or (occas.) a private house used as a meeting-place by homosexual men.
| 1728 J. Dalton Narr. Street Robberies 36 They fell in amongst a Company of Sodomites; one..told Dalton..that..if Dalton and Susan Haws would go to such a Place, naming a noted *Molly-House..they would come to them. 1988 Times Lit. Suppl. 4 Nov. 1234/4 He overlays the map of our own disco-studded London on the restaurants and molly-houses of Wilde's. |
▪ II. molly n.2, mollie dial.
(ˈmɒlɪ)
[Alleged to be an abbreviated form of mollymawk.]
1. = fulmar. Cf. maw (mall).
| 1857 F. O. Morris Hist. Eng. Birds VI. 237 Fulmar..Mallemoke. Molly. 1874 A. H. Markham Whaling Cruise to Baffin's B. 144 The voracity of the ‘mollies’ swarming round the ship is perfectly astonishing. 1882 Nature XXVI. 387 Other birds were..seen, including..the molly. |
2. A meeting of ship-captains held on board one of several ice-bound ships in company.
| 1874 A. H. Markham Whaling Cruise to Baffin's B. 112 In the evening..I got some little insight into the mysteries of a ‘mollie’, though on a small scale. In whaling parlance, a ‘mollie’ means having a night of it. 1885 Schley & Soley Rescue of Greely 183 These interviews are called ‘Mollies’, and are announced by a bucket hoisted as a signal at the fore-royal masthead... Generally speaking, a ‘Mollie’ means making a night of it. |
▪ III. molly, v.
(ˈmɒlɪ)
[f. molly1 or molly-coddle v.]
1. intr. (See quot.) dial.
| 1884 R. Lawson Upton-on-Severn Words 23 Molly, to do woman's work indoors, being a man. ‘'E were a good un to molly for 'isself, were old Joe.’ |
2. trans. = molly-coddle v.
| 1907 M. C. Harris Tents of Wickedness ii. ii. 138 Paul hasn't been mollied, and I hope he's a nice fellow. |
▪ IV. molly
var. mali n.1