frolic

English

Alternative forms

• frolick

Etymology

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

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɹɒlɪk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɹɑlɪk/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɒlɪk
• Hyphenation: frol‧ic

Adjective

frolic (comparative more frolic, superlative most frolic)

1. (now rare) Merry, joyous, full of mirth; later especially, frolicsome, sportive, full of playful mischief.
   • 1645, John Milton, “L’Allegro”, in Poems‎, 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, 5th edition, London: H. Herringman, published 1686, page 73:

     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 [...].

2. (obsolete, rare) Free; liberal; bountiful; generous.

Verb

frolic (third-person singular simple present frolics, present participle frolicking, simple past and past participle frolicked)

1. (intransitive) To make merry; to have fun; to romp; to behave playfully and uninhibitedly.

   We saw the lambs frolicking in the meadow.

2. (transitive, archaic) To cause to be merry.

Derived terms

• rollick

Translations

Noun

frolic (plural frolics)

1. Gaiety; merriment.
   • 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.

2. A playful antic.
   • 1680, James Dillon, 3rd Earl of Roscommon, Art of Poetry:

     He would be at his frolic once again.

3. (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

• milling frolic
• turtle frolic

Translations

See also

• cavort

Related terms

• frolicsome

References

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “frolic”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.