molly

See also: Molly

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɒli/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑli/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒli
• Homophones: mollie, Mollie, Molly

Etymology 1

From Molly, the personal name, a pet form of Mary. In some cases it is possibly derived from mollitia (“softness, weakness”). Drug sense probably influenced by the initial of MDMA.

Noun

molly (countable and uncountable, plural mollies)

1. (now chiefly Ireland) A woman or girl, especially of low status.
2. (slang) An effeminate male, a male homosexual.
3. (slang, uncountable) Pure MDMA powder.

   Synonym: mandy

   • 2013, “We Can't Stop”, in Bangerz, performed by Miley Cyrus:

     So la-da-di-da-di, we like to party / Dancing with Molly / Doing whatever we want

   • 2022, Sean Thor Conroe, Fuccboi‎^[1], Hachette, →ISBN:

     Was pissed now. But also hyper-lit, euphoric almost, given the adrenaline plus molly.

4. A mollemoke.
5. A female cat, a she-cat (usually spayed)
6. A bird, the wagtail.
7. A molly bolt.

Derived terms

• mollycoddle
• molly-guard
• molly-handed
• molly house
• hairy molly

Verb

molly (third-person singular simple present mollies, present participle mollying, simple past and past participle mollied)

1. To engage in (male) homosexual activity with.
   • 1998, Netta Murray Goldsmith, The Worst of Crimes, page 79:

     I said, "I never mollied you." My Lord, I never laid Hands upon him, nor touch'd him.

   • 2007, Matt Cook, A Gay History of Britain:

     On one occasion, Partridge was nearly mobbed in a molly-house when some men called him a 'treacherous, blowing-up, mollying bitch, and swore they'd massacre anybody that should betray them.'

   • 2017, Peter Ackroyd, Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day:

     It is a case of the biter bit, or the molly-taker mollied, but it is also an interesting example of the ways in which the criminal underworld and sexual underworld met in eighteenth-century London

See also

• moll

Etymology 2

From Mollienesia, an invalid taxonomic name for the genus, influenced by the personal name Molly.

Noun

molly (plural mollies)

1. A fish of the genus Poecilia, except for those known as guppies.

Derived terms

• molly miller

Translations

fish

• Finnish: molli (fi)
• Spanish: chimbolo
• Swedish: molly (sv), lyrmolly c

See also

• guppy

Etymology 3

Noun

molly (plural mollies)

1. (India, South Asia) Alternative spelling of mali (“a member of a caste in South Asia whose traditional occupation is gardening; hence, any South Asian gardener”).

See also

terms containing "molly" (probably etymologically unrelated)

• hog molly
• mollydocker
• molly wop

 

Etymology 4

Clipping of Molotov.

Noun

molly (plural mollies)

1. (video games, slang) A Molotov cocktail.
   • 2020 August 5, Andreas Stavropoulos, “Hiko on Killjoy's Nanoswarm: "I think they do a lot of damage too fast and I think it's hard to even tell you're in a molly sometimes"”, in Dot Esports‎^[2], archived from the original on 2022-08-11:

     Brimstone, Viper, and Phoenix's mollies were adjusted during a closed beta patch, changing the damage tick speed so players couldn't avoid damage by bunny hopping. Killjoy's Nanoswarm will likely follow suit.

Further reading

• “molly n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present