Word.ws English Dictionary

bally

/ˈbæli/

bally adjective: bloody (used as a mild intensifier).

Adjective

bally (not comparable)

  1. (UK, dated, euphemistic) Bloody (used as a mild intensifier).
    • He's just a bally idiot.
    • “My faith! It’ll be more bally corpse than bride, though, this journey.”1889, Rudyard Kipling, “Only A Subaltern”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 145

Adverb

bally (not comparable)

  1. (UK, dated, euphemistic) Very.
    • That was a bally foolish thing to do, old chap!
    Synonyms:
    blasted, dashed

Noun

bally (plural ballies)

  1. (Multicultural-London-English) A balaclava.
    • With SB, no sideman
      Bally on my face like darg I’m silent (…)
      3 up Silent and Violent
      Bally on my face, fuck Trident2017 January 7, “2Ls”, performed by Y.AM of 410
    • Always I got my bally
      But sometimes I'm like fuck bally
      Cah long time I ain’t seen Savy
      And long time I ain’t seen Smarkz2017 February 8, “Call It”, performed by Bis of Harlem Spartans

Examples of bally in a sentence

  • There’s a hole in her you could drive a bally cow through, sir.”1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 115:
  • “The bally fool... the stupid, bally fool.1984, Armistead Maupin, Babycakes, page 134:
  • I’ma get that iron, go and get the bally2017 June 10, “50 Cali”, in Wamp 2 Dem, performed by Giggs of SN1:

Synonyms of bally

Forms of bally

pluralballies

Origin of bally

Alteration of bloody.

Clipping of balaclava + -y.

Words formed from bally

  • bally up

Phrases with bally

Words that rhyme with bally

13 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about bally

What does bally mean?
Bally means bloody (used as a mild intensifier).
How do you use bally in a sentence?
There’s a hole in her you could drive a bally cow through, sir.”
What part of speech is bally?
Bally can be an adjective, an adverb or a noun.
How do you pronounce bally?
Bally is pronounced /ˈbæli/.

Words near bally in the dictionary

  1. ballutes
  2. Ballville
  3. Ballweg
  4. Ballwegs
  5. Ballwin
  6. bally
  7. bally about
  8. bally-warche
  9. bally-warches
  10. bally-wartch
  11. bally-wartches

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bally (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bally.wav.

Cite this entry: “bally.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bally. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.