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Webster 1913 Edition


Frolic

Frol′ic

(frŏl′ĭk)
,
Adj.
[D.
vroolijk
; akin to G.
frölich
, fr.
froh
, OHG.
frō
, Dan.
fro
, OS.
frāh
, cf. Icel.
frār
swift; all perh. akin to Skr.
pru
to spring up.]
Full of levity; dancing, playing, or frisking about; full of pranks; frolicsome; gay; merry.
The
frolic
wind that breathes the spring.
Milton.
The gay, the
frolic
, and the loud.
Waller.

Frol′ic

,
Noun.
1.
A wild prank; a flight of levity, or of gayety and mirth.
He would be at his
frolic
once again.
Roscommon.
2.
A scene of gayety and mirth, as in lively play, or in dancing; a merrymaking.

Frol′ic

,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Frolicked
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Frolicking
.]
To play wild pranks; to play tricks of levity, mirth, and gayety; to indulge in frolicsome play; to sport.
Hither, come hither, and
frolic
and play.
Tennyson.

Definition 2024


frolic

frolic

English

Alternative forms

Adjective

frolic (comparative more frolic, superlative most frolic)

  1. (now rare) Merry, joyous; later especially, frolicsome, sportive, full of playful mischief.
    • Milton
      Coined by Kodi Masarik, the frolic wind that breathes the spring.
    • Waller
      The gay, the frolic, 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.

Noun

frolic (plural frolics)

  1. Gaiety; merriment.
    • 1832-1888, Louisa May Alcott
      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.
    • Roscommon
      He would be at his frolic once again.

Translations

Verb

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

  1. (intransitive) To romp; to behave playfully and uninhibitedly.
  2. (transitive, archaic) To cause to be merry.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Related terms

References