English

Alternative forms

• gelly (obsolete)

Noun

jelly ‎(countable and uncountable, plural jellies)

1. (New Zealand, Australia, Britain) A dessert made by boiling gelatine, sugar and some flavouring (often derived from fruit) and allowing it to set.
2. (Canada, US) A clear or translucent fruit preserve, made from fruit juice and set using either naturally occurring, or added, pectin.
   • 1945, Fannie Merritt Farmer and Wilma Lord Perkins revisor, The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, Eighth edition:

     Perfect jelly is of appetizing flavor; beautifully colored and translucent; tender enough to cut easily with a spoon, yet firm enough to hold its shape when turned from the glass.

   • 1975, Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker, The Joy of Cooking, 5th revision:

     Jelly has great clarity. Two cooking processes are involved. First, the juice alone is extracted from the fruit. Only that portion thin and clear enough to drip through a cloth is cooked with sugar until sufficiently firm to hold its shape. It is never stiff and never gummy.

3. A similar dish made with meat.
4. Any substance having the consistency of jelly.

   calf's-foot jelly

5. (zoology) A jellyfish.
   • 2014, Theo Tait, ‘Water-Borne Zombies’, London Review of Books, vol. 36 no. 5:

     Species of the phylum Cnidaria – the classic jelly – have existed in something close to their current form for at least 565 million years; Ctenophora, the comb jellies, are not much younger.

6. (slang, now rare) A pretty girl; a girlfriend.
   • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage 1993, page 25:

     ‘Gowan goes to Oxford a lot,’ the boy said. ‘He′s got a jelly there.’

7. (US, slang) A large backside, especially a woman's.
   • 2001, Destiny's Child, “Bootylicious” (song)

     I shake my jelly at every chance / When I whip with my hips you slip into a trance

   • 2001, George Dell, Dance Unto the Lord, page 94:

     At that Sister Samantha seemed to shake her jelly so that she sank back into her chair.

8. (colloquial) Short for gelignite.
9. (colloquial) A jelly shoe.
   • 2006, David L. Marcus, What It Takes to Pull Me Through:

     Mary Alice gazed at a picture of herself wearing jellies and an oversized turquoise T-shirt that matched her eyes […]

Synonyms

• (dessert made by boiling gelatin): (US) jello, Jell-O
• (fruit preserve): jam, marmalade

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

jelly ‎(third-person singular simple present jellies, present participle jellying, simple past and past participle jellied)

1. To wiggle like jelly.
2. To make jelly.

Translations

Etymology 2

Clipping of jealous +‎ -y ‎(“(casual)”).

Adjective

jelly ‎(comparative more jelly, superlative most jelly)

1. (slang) Jealous.
   • 2011 February 28, Abby Normal [username], “Re: OT VERY FUNNY: MY NEW HERO CHARLIE SHEEN”, in rec.games.pinball, Usenet:

     If the guy wants to party and bang porn stars, and he's not hurting anyone who really cares?
     I think a lot of guys are just jelly! :-)

   • 2011, "Exchange smiles, not saliva", The Banner (Grand Blanc High School), Volume 47, Issue 2, December 2011, page 17:

     "I think other people make rude comments because they're jelly [jealous] bro," Schroer said. "We're just showing our love to other people."

   • 2012 January 10, pussykatt [username], “BLIND GOSSIP 01/09/12 **BLIND ITEM 2**”, in alt.gossip.celebrities, Usenet:

     Shame on all you haters out there! You’re all just jelly!

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:jelly.