Also 7–8 trolly-lolly. [Cf. Flemish tralje, traalje, trellis, lattice, mesh, network (De Bo). Kant (q. 1882) is Flem. for ‘edge, border, lace, point.’] Name of a kind of lace: see quots. Also attrib.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Trolly-lolly, coarse Lace once much in fashion, now worn only by the meaner sort.
1756. Mrs. Dewes, in Mrs. Delany’s Life & Corr. (1861), III. 434. She is … dressed much better than I ever saw her. I fancy her friend Mrs. Egerton has vamped her up with a trolly hood.
1882. Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, 501. Trolly Laces … are Pillow Laces, made in Normandy, in Flanders, and in Buckinghamshire, and Devonshire, their ground … is an imitation of the Antwerp Trolly Net or Point de Paris Ground, and is made with twists, while the pattern is outlined with a thick thread like that used in the old Flemish Laces, and known as Trolle Kant.
1891. Cent. Dict., s.v. Trolley, Honiton lace made with a trolley ground.
1895. Funk’s Stand. Dict., s.v. Trolley, T[rolley]-thread, one of the threads outlining the pattern of trolley-lace.
