Word.ws English Dictionary

by golly

by golly adverb: synonym of by God.

Adverb

by golly (not comparable)

  1. (minced oath) Synonym of by God.
    • By golly, a fellow ought to have some say-so in the sale of his eggs.1965, Robinson Barnwell, Head Into The Wind
    • I understand that ministers are hoping to get the Bill on the statute book by the autumn. And by golly, they are in a hurry.2024 August 7, Christian Wolmar, “Labour in a hurry to implement changes on the railway”, in RAIL, number 1015, page 42
    Synonyms:
    by God

Interjection

  1. (minced oath) Synonym of by God.
    Synonyms:
    by God

Synonyms of by golly

Questions about by golly

What does by golly mean?
By golly means synonym of by God.
What part of speech is by golly?
By golly can be an adverb or an interjection.

Words near by golly in the dictionary

  1. by George
  2. by ginger
  3. by God
  4. by God's teeth
  5. by gods
  6. by golly
  7. by gorra
  8. by gosh
  9. by guess or by God
  10. by guess or by golly
  11. by guess or by gosh

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: by golly (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.

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