Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Short and plump; pudgy.
- n. A short plump person or thing.
- n. Chiefly British A pudding made of jam or fruit rolled up in pastry dough and baked or steamed until soft.
- n. See pill bug.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An old game, somewhat resembling bowls, played with pins and a half-sphere of wood on a floor or smooth plot of ground.
- n. A sheet of paste spread with jam and rolled up, to form a pudding.
- n. A low, vulgar person.
- n. A short, stout person.
- Of or pertaining to a roly-poly; shaped like a roly-poly; round; pudgy.
Wiktionary
- adj. colloquial short and plump
- n. A short, plump person.
- n. UK A steamed pudding made from suet pastry containing jam or fruit.
- n. In gymnastics, a forward or sideways roll, such as that down a hill.
- n. A pill bug, potato bug or sowbug.
GNU Webster's 1913
- Rolly-poly.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a rotund individual
- adj. short and plump
- n. pudding made of suet pastry spread with jam or fruit and rolled up and baked or steamed
Etymologies
- Alteration and reduplication of roll. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Dylan was a "healthy, chunky, roly-poly boy," said his aunt, Amy Compton.”
The Washington Post: Fairfax man sentenced to 8 years in son's death
“Although he was slender and spare with silver wire-rimmed glasses, there was something about him that reminded Sharon of a roly-poly Santa Claus.”
“Roll the boiled egg down Astroturf knoll" and "the Baga bronze roly-poly" are two of my works in progress.”
“Inevitably, her presence is in danger of usurping the traditional dame; but, since the roly-poly Mr Potts is also the show's writer, he ensures he gets a fair slice of the action.”
“Morros, who made his first public bow at a news conference in Washington on August 12, turned out to be a balding, roly-poly former musician, whose ostensible claim to fame was having composed “The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers.””
“Little Augie lounged on a couch in the apartment of George White, a roly-poly former New York cop who had busted him several times but kept in friendly contact with the mobster over the years.”
“The payoff was when roly-poly Mr. Hill tells abs-of-steel Mr. Worthington to chill while he goes solo on the bad guys.”
The Wall Street Journal: Is It Too Late to Become a Gamer Nerd?
“Dom DeLuise, who spiced up such movies as "Blazing Saddles," "Silent Movie" and "The Cannonball Run" with his manic delivery and roly-poly persona, has died, his son's publicist told CNN.”
“An uncontrollable (or uncontrolled?) squeal of delight escaped my lips as I caught sight of the bounty of newly arrived autumn treats: plump burnt orange pumpkins and squash, roly-poly sweet potatoes, deep chocolate-colored figs nestled snugly together inside their tiny wooden crate.”
The Huffington Post: Jamie Schler: Apple Clafoutis: A Recipe for Autumn
“Pepe does three roly-poly revolutions.45 min: Lassana Diarra chops down Messi.”
The Guardian: Barcelona v Real Madrid – as it happened | Rob Bagchi
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘roly-poly’.
-
UK Realia
Shoo!, Holly, Pixie, Mr Paws, Shandy, Snowy, Tibbles, Tufty, bull terrier, cocker spaniel, Irish setter, Yorkshire terrier and 1132 more...
-
Let Them Eat Cake...
Tasty confectionery trinkets for the listless masses.
petit four, bon bon, scone, crumpet, meringue, cupcake, beignet, tart, tiramisu, ladyfingers, fritter, crepe and 44 more...
-
Words that look like adverbs but aren't
manly, womanly, ungainly, slovenly, homily, costly, dastardly, family, sparkly, wrinkly, oily, orderly and 69 more...
-
British Food
Traditional British dishes have some of the most unique and interesting names. Here's a list to collect all those wonderfully-named foods and delectable words to describe how delicious British cuis...
spotted dick, black pudding, crumpets, yorkshire pudding, mushy peas, bubble and squeak, scotch egg, fish and chips, clotted cream, full english, bangers and mash, sunday roast and 63 more...
-
food words
weetabix, blancmange, shandy, meringue, allspice, pavlova, quiche, caster sugar, suet, moonshine, turnip, swede and 93 more...
-
The Aubrey/Maturin List I'm Gonna Mak...
I'm wading through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels one by one, and someday, I'll wade through them again and list all the words I learned while reading them.
Edit: I started ma...studdingsail, carronade, mumchance, grumlin-futtocks, crosscat-harpings, holystone, sennit, orlop, orchitis, negus, kevel, altumal and 1112 more...
-
Double Trouble
Reduplicatives and more.
splish-splash, hip-hop, kit-kat, dingaling, hugger-mugger, even-steven, tit for tat, higgledy-piggledy, dilly-dally, boogie-woogie, knick-knack, mai tai and 131 more...
-
Words of Whimsy & Grace
abecedary, addendum, ampersand, anachronism, avuncular, balderdash, barnacle, befuddle, behemoth, bejeebers, blabbermouth, blatherskite and 465 more...
-
EN - funny (single) words
"Fornication" is not equal to "formication".
Words with funny meaning, spelling or both.barratry, bastinado, bezonian, bibcock, bibliobibuli, biffy, bodewash, boeotian, boondoggle, borborygmic, bosky, brobdingnagian and 729 more...
-
they trip off the tongue
interesting compounds
flummadiddle, flapdoodle, lickety-split, jiggery-pokery, whangdoodle, whippersnapper, mumbo jumbo, shilly-shally, fiddle-faddle, topsy-turvy, fuddy-duddy, hugger-mugger and 38 more...
-
Time to be cute.
paddle, tickle, giggle, hiccup, buttercup, cookie, sock, chew, roly-poly, cartwheel, butterfly, bee and 23 more...
-
I like it. I like it a lot.
a list of words that I know already, but have a strange attraction to.
roly-poly, womanly, humdrum, hunky-dory, chubby, cookie, chocolate, cake, fiddlesticks, butyraceous, defiant, infertility and 3 more...
-
Diet
scamp, plucky, countenance, toddle, wither, jade, bobbish, obtuse, fatuity, puisne, insipid, palpable and 77 more...
-
replications
holus-bolus, push-puller, riffraff, ricky-ticky, fuzzy-wuzzy, hoity-toity, wishy-washy, airy-fairy, hugger-mugger, fuddy-duddy, knick-knack, roly-poly and 4 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for roly-poly.
reesetee Haha! Mar 5, 2008
chained_bear "Killick and Ahmed came in, the one bearing a roly-poly pudding and the other a sauce-boat of custard...
"'You may say what you please,' said Jack, 'but I have eaten roly-poly within the Arctic Circle, damned nearly within the Antarctic, and now under the equator, and I am of opinion that it has not its equal.'
"'Except, perhaps, for spotted dog.'
"'Ah, you have a point there, Stephen.'"
--Patrick O'Brian, The Thirteen Gun Salute, 268–269 Mar 5, 2008