slang. [JOLLY a. used as sb.]
1. A royal marine. Tame jolly, a militiaman.
1829. Marryat, F. Mildmay, xi. The jollies fired tolerably well. Ibid. (1841), Poacher, xxvi. ‘Jollies! what are they?’ ‘Why, marines, to be sure.’
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., s.v., Tame jolly, a militiaman: royal jolly, a marine.
1896. Kipling, Seven Seas, 172. An’ ’e sweats like a Jolly—’Er Majesty’s Jolly—soldier an’ sailor too!
2. A cheer.
1871. Daily Tel., 7 March, 5/2 (Farmer). On a suggestion ‘to give him a jolly,’ which appears to be the local phrase, they cheered the hero loud and long.
1894. Daily News, 27 July, 8/1. The Chairman … called upon those who benefited by it to give those gentlemen a ‘jolly,’ a request which was carried out with amazing vigour.
3. A word of praise or favorable notice, esp. one uttered for some ulterior purpose, as to further the sale of goods; also, a sham purchaser (see quot. 1867).
1856. H. Mayhew, Gt. World London, 46 (Farmer). The dependents of cheats; as jollies and ‘magsmen,’ or the confederates of other cheats.
1867. Daily Post, 26 Dec., 8/3. The man Kelly was what is termed a ‘jolly,’ that was, a person paid to bid so as to induce strangers to believe that he was a bonâ fide purchaser, instead of being a paid sham.
1873. Slang Dict., 205. ‘Chuck Harry, a jolly, Bill,’ i. e. go and praise up his goods, or buy of him, and speak well of the article.
