Inflected frolicked, frolicking. [f. the adj.; cf. Flem. frolicken (Kilian), also Ger. frohlocken (where the second element is of obscure origin).]
1. intr. To make merry; in later use, to play pranks, gambol, caper about. Also, to frolic it.
1593. Tell-Troth’s N. Y. Gift, 29. The eie beeing pleased with an eye, and the hart contented with a hart, they frolique both in glory as long as they rest in constancie.
1601. ? Marston, Pasquil & Katherine, I. 52. ’Tis Whitson-tyde, and we must frolick it.
1624. Ford, Sun’s Darling, V. i. I come to frolic with you, and to cheer Your drooping souls by vigour of my beams.
a. 1677. Barrow, Wks. (1687), I. xiv. 201. Those who can devise no other subjects to frolick upon beside these. Ibid., 205. It would not be seemly to frolick it thus.
1770. Goldsm., Des. Vill., 257. Lightly they frolic o’er the vacant mind.
1780. Johnson, Lett., 11 April. My mistress … laughs, and frisks, and frolicks it all the long day.
1833. Byron, Island, III. iii. Its bounding crystal frolick’d in the ray.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess., Poet, Wks. (Bohn), I. 158. Talent may frolic and juggle; genius realizes and adds.
1886. Ruskin, Præterita, I. vi. 181. The French Horses … untrimmed, long-tailed, good-humouredly licentious, whinnying and frolicking with each other when they had a chance.
quasi-trans. 1798. Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1799), II. 194. ’Twas theirs … To laugh, intrigue, and frolic life away.
2. trans. † a. To make joyous or merry (obs.). b. [from the sb.] To give ‘frolics’ or parties to.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, III. (Arb.), 81. Also mye companions in country cittye be frollickt.
1627–77. Feltham, Resolves, I. lxxv, Wks. 115. Virtue … gives such Cordials, as frolick the heart, in the press of adversity.
1807–8. W. Irving, Salmagundi (1824), 137. By dint of dinners, of feeding and frolicking the town, the Giblet family worked themselves into notice.
Hence Frolicking vbl. sb. and ppl. a. Also Frolicker, one who frolics; Frolickery ? nonce-wd. [see -ERY], buffoonery.
1676. Teonge, Diary (1825), 164–5. In the morning about sun-riseing they doe their devotions, and all the day following they spend in frollikeing with their women.
c. 1741. Brainerd, in Edwards, Life, i. (1851), 3. Addicted to young company or frolicing (as it is called).
1786. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, Nov. In the midst of this frolicking … the King entered.
1801. in D. L. Leonard, Papers Ohio Ch. Hist. Soc. (1894), V. 48. Swearers and Sabbath-breakers, frolickers and dancers were pricked and crying for mercy.
1829. Cobbett, Adv. to Lover, § 147. Winter is the great season for jaunting and dancing (called frolicking) in America.
1851. Sir F. Palgrave, Norm. & Eng., I. 408. He took to the trade in frolickery.
1872. ‘Mark Twain,’ Innoc. Abr., i. 11. A long summer day’s laborious frolicking.
1887. Bowen, Virg. Eclog., ii. 64. Frolicking she-goat roves to the cytisus flower to be fed.
