roly-poly, n., a., and adv.
(ˈrəʊlɪˈpəʊlɪ)
Also rolypoly. Forms: 7 rowle-powle, 7–8 (9 dial.) rowly-powly (8 Sc. -powl), 8 (9 dial.) rowley-powley, 8 rouly-pouly, 9 Sc. roulie-poulie, 8–9 rolly-pooly, -polly, 9 rol(l)ey-pol(l)ey (-boley), roly-poley, 9 dial. rolli-powley, Sc. rollie-poly; 7– roly-poly, 9 rolypoly.
[App. a fanciful formation on roll v.2 In sense 1 the second element may be based on poll n.1]
† 1. a. A worthless fellow; a rascal. Obs.
| 1601 B. Jonson Poetaster i. ii, How now, good man slaue? what, rowle powle [1692 rowly powly]? all riualls, rascall? 1602 Dekker Satirom. Wks. 1873 I. 201 Ile have thee in league first with these two rowly powlies. 1609 R. Armin Maids of More-Cl. (1880) 107 Sause box, rowly powly, am I not your master? |
† b. ?
adv. Pell-mell, without distinction.
Obs.—1| 1605 Rowlands Hell's broke loose (Hunterian Club) 17 Wee'le ayme our thoughts on high, at Honors marke: All rowly, powly; Tayler, Smyth, and Clarke. |
† c. adj. ? Trifling, worthless.
Obs.—1| 1679 Sp. Miles Corbet 5 That we have plotted and laboured long to turn this glorious Monarchy into a peddling roly poly, Independant Anarchy. |
2. a. The name of various games, in most of which the rolling of a ball is the chief feature.
Johnson (1755), citing Arbuthnot, says ‘A sort of game, in which, when a ball rolls into a certain place, it wins’. For later accounts of the various forms, see the
Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v.| 1713 Arbuthnot John Bull ii. xv, If this be your Play.., let us begin some Diversion; what d'ye think of Rouly⁓pouly, or a Country Dance? 1730 in Lett. C'tess Suffolk (1824) I. 374 Lady Betty and herself play only at quadrille; but the Duchess of Marlborough takes to losing her money at roly-poly. 1745 Act 18 Geo. II, c. 34 §1 A certain pernicious Game called Roulet, or Roly-poly is daily practised. 1759 Brit. Chron. 17 Aug. 163 As some men were playing at Rolly poley at the Bird-cage alehouse. 1801 Strutt Sports & Past. iii. vii. (1810) 241 Half-bowl is practised to this day in Hertfordshire, where it is commonly called rolly-polly. 1807 E. S. Barrett Rising Sun I. 76 To a luxurious supper succeeded wines,..fire and flames, and rolly-polly on the floor. 1847 Illustr. Lond. News 6 Nov. 302/1 Restore roulette and rowley-powley to the Surrey hills, and the Knaves-mire flats. 1883 Longman's Mag. Apr. 655 [At Haddington Fair] there are..travelling photographers, merry-go-rounds.., games of rolly-polly [etc.]. |
| attrib. 1747 S. Fielding Lett. David Simple I. 84, I did not go to the Roly-poly or Card-Tables. |
b. pl. Billiard-balls.
nonce-use.
| 1850 Smedley F. Fairleigh vii, Going to have a touch at the rolley-polleys, I suppose. |
3. A game in which children roll over and over down a bank or grassy slope.
| 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 128, I..often mark'd the place I play'd At ‘roly poly’ down the hill. 1894 Heslop Northumberld. Gloss. 585. |
4. A jocular name for a pea.
| 1784 Cries of London 32 Here's your large Rowley Powlies, no more than Six-pence a Peck. Ibid. 33 Rowley Powley, jolly Pease. |
5. A kind of pudding, consisting of a sheet of pastry covered with jam or preserves, formed into a roll and boiled or steamed.
attrib.| 1848 Thackeray Bk. Snobs xxxv, As for the roly-poly, it was too good. 1866 Times 2 Oct., He..would have devoured a Charlotte Russe or a Nesselrode pudding as unthinkingly as a common rolly-pooly. 1894 Sir J. D. Astley Fifty Yrs. Life I. 247 Our menu not bad—carrot soup (potted), mutton pudding,..and marmalade roly-poly. |
| attrib. 1841 Thackeray Gt. Hoggarty Diam. (1849) xii. 168 You said I make the best rolly-polly puddings in the world. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 197 It is sometimes made in the rounded form of the plum-pudding; but more frequently in the ‘roly-poly’ style. |
6. A roll or coil of hair (see
quot.).
| 1866 Daily Tel. 16 Jan. 7/5 The German ladies are seen to be tremendous in back hair, front cascades, side bulbs, transverse roly-polies. |
7. A kind of dance (see
quots.).
| 1830–2 Carleton Traits (1843) I. 341 The usual variety of Irish dances—the reel, jig, fling, three-part-reel, four-part-reel, rowly-powly. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour (1861) III. 145 When I danced, it was merely a comic dance—what we call a ‘roley poley’. |
8. a. Austr. A salsolaceous plant having characteristics similar to those of the Rose of Jericho.
| 1859 D. Bunce Trav. w. Leichhardt in Austr. 168 These weeds grow in the form of a large ball... No sooner were a few of these balls (or, as we were in the habit of calling them, ‘rolly-poleys’) taken up with the current of air [etc.]. 1865 J. E. Tenison-Woods Discov. & Expl. Austr. II. 468 In the dry season it withers, and is easily broken off and rolled about by the winds, whence it is called roley-poley by the settlers. 1896 B. Spencer Thro' Larapinta Land 13 On the loamy flats..the most noticeable plant is Salsola kali, popularly known as the Rolly-polly. |
b. roly-poly grass (see
quots.).
| 1889 J. H. Maiden Useful Native Pl. 100 Panicum macractinum,..‘Roly-poly Grass’. This species produces immense dry and spreading panicles. 1896 Daily News 11 June 3/1 The singular object labelled ‘Roley-poley grass’..is made up of tufts of a particular kind of grass, which, forming..into a small ball, rolls away over the limitless prairie, gathering as it goes. |
9. adj. Short and stout; podgy, dumpy, plump. Chiefly of children.
| 1820 Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life (1870) II. 85 The very reverse of the romping roly-poly thing, as round and blooming as a rose,..which is my beau-ideal of a child of that age. 1853 Miss Mulock Agatha's Husb. II. i. 13 Cottages, in the doors of which a few rolypoly, open-eyed children stood. 1865 ― Christian's Mistake 44 A little roly-poly woman, with a meek, round, fair-complexioned face. 1885 E. Garrett At Any Cost vii, A beautiful beagle, watching..over two roly-poly pups. |
| absol. 1836 Backwoods of Canada 216 One little girl, a fat brown roly-poly, of three years old, beat time on her father's knee. |
| Comb. 1874 Coues Birds N.W. 147 The plumage all..puffy, making very pretty ‘roly-poly’ looking objects. |