Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having or exhibiting a lack of good judgment or common sense; foolish. synonym: foolish.
  • adjective Lacking seriousness or responsibleness; frivolous.
  • adjective Semiconscious; dazed.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Happy; fortunate; blessed.
  • Plain; simple; rustic; rude.
  • Simple-hearted; guileless; ingenuous; innocent.
  • Weak; impotent; helpless; frail.
  • Foolish, as a term of pity; deficient in understanding; weak-minded; witless; simple.
  • Foolish, as an epithet of contempt; characterized by weakness or folly; manifesting want of judgment or common sense; stupid or unwise: as, a silly coxcomb; a silly book; silly conduct.
  • Fatuous; imbecile; mentally weak to the verge of idiocy.
  • Weak in body: not in good health; sickly; weakly.
  • Synonyms Dull, etc. see simple.
  • Absurd, Silly, Foolish, etc. See a bsurd.
  • noun A silly person: as, what a silly you are!

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Happy; fortunate; blessed.
  • adjective obsolete Harmless; innocent; inoffensive.
  • adjective obsolete Weak; helpless; frail.
  • adjective obsolete Rustic; plain; simple; humble.
  • adjective Weak in intellect; destitute of ordinary strength of mind; foolish; witless; simple.
  • adjective Proceeding from want of understanding or common judgment; characterized by weakness or folly; unwise; absurd; stupid.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective archaic Pitiable; deserving of compassion; helpless.
  • adjective obsolete Simple, unsophisticated, ordinary; rustic, ignorant.
  • adjective foolish, showing a lack of good sense and wisdom; frivolous, trifling.
  • adjective irresponsible, showing irresponsible behaviors.
  • adjective playful, giggly.
  • adjective semiconscious, witless.
  • adjective cricket of a fielding position, very close to the batsman; closer than short
  • adjective pejorative simple, not intelligent, refined.
  • noun colloquial A silly person; a fool.
  • noun colloquial A mistake.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective dazed from or as if from repeated blows
  • adjective ludicrous, foolish
  • adjective inspiring scornful pity
  • noun a word used for misbehaving children
  • adjective lacking seriousness; given to frivolity

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English seli, silli, blessed, innocent, hapless, from Old English gesælig, blessed.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Phonetic variant of seely. From Old English *sǣliġ, "blessed", (attested only in form ġesǣliġ), from Proto-Germanic *sēlīgaz. Cognate with West Frisian sillich, Dutch zalig, German selig. More at sely.

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Examples

  • The term "silly season," in Washington, usually refers to the August congressional vacation... oh, excuse me, "district work period."

    Chris Weigant: Friday Talking Points -- Obama's Fourteenth Option Chris Weigant 2011

  • The term "silly season," in Washington, usually refers to the August congressional vacation... oh, excuse me, "district work period."

    Chris Weigant: Friday Talking Points -- Obama's Fourteenth Option Chris Weigant 2011

  • In fact, even science has justified the term "silly season", with a US professor citing a cocktail of serotonin, cortisol, and dopamine - from all that sugary food and close family time - as the reason we feel less inhibited and highly strung around Christmas.

    NEWS.com.au | Top Stories 2011

  • The dialogue must have only been written to provide difficulty for whoever had to speak it – Pak's moving story about the first AC on Carpathia who the writers named Tigger-99, a name silly enough to diffuse any seriousness the tale held.

    Outcasts: series one, episode five 2011

  • Never mind that the term silly has to be the most benign insult I have ever used or heard.

    Don't Call Me Silly �� The Inherent Problems with Censoring Ad Hominem Attacks and Hate Speech 2009

  • The dialogue must have only been written to provide difficulty for whoever had to speak it - Pak's moving story about the first AC on Carpathia who the writers named Tigger-99, a name silly enough to diffuse any seriousness the tale held.

    The Guardian World News Phelim O'Neill 2011

  • Many Americans FlyersRights members among them are dissatisfied and skeptical of what he calls "silly and ineffective security measures designed to obscure glaring weaknesses in a well-funded system that has had 10 years to get it right."

    Kate Hanni: Ten Years Later: Are Travelers Really Safer? Kate Hanni 2011

  • The break for Tennessee-born Taylor came in 1962, when arranger/composer Willie Dixon, impressed by her voice, got her a Chess recording contract and produced several singles and two albums for her, including the million-selling 1965 hit, "Wang Dang Doodle," which she called silly, but which launched her recording career.

    blues diva koko taylor, 1929-2009 2009

  • A spokesman says the governor was joking and his words were being taken out of what he calls a silly entertainment context.

    CNN Transcript Oct 30, 2007 2007

  • Johnson, who had shown no want of sympathy at the proper time, saw nothing in the partial disappointment of overrated expectations to warrant such ungoverned emotions, and rebuked him sternly for what he termed a silly affectation, saying that “No man should be expected to sympathize with the sorrows of vanity.”

    The Life of Oliver Goldsmith 2004

Comments

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  • A municipality located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.

    January 1, 2008

  • In the game cricket, refers to fielders who are in a location quite close to the batsman.

    September 25, 2009