Word.ws English Dictionary

dilly

/ˈdɪli/

dilly adjective: redolent of dill (the herb).

Adjective (1)

dilly (comparative more dilly, superlative most dilly)

  1. Redolent of dill (the herb).

Noun (1)

dilly (plural dillies)

  1. Someone or something that is remarkable or unusual.
    • You're the most impossible man I ever met. And I've met some dillies.1958, Raymond Chandler, Playback
    • Seriously, I mean it: From Russia, With Love is a real wowser, a lulu, a dilly and a smasheroo.2013, Andrew Lycett, Ian Fleming, page 301

Noun (2)

dilly (plural dillies)

  1. (Australia) A dilly bag.

Adjective (2)

dilly (comparative dillier, superlative dilliest)

  1. (Australia) Silly; characteristic of a dill.

Noun (3)

dilly (plural dillies)

  1. (dated) A kind of stagecoach.
    • So, down thy hill, romantic Ashbourn, glides
      The Derby dilly, carrying six insides.1798, John Hookham Frere, George Canning, The Loves of the Triangles
  2. (obsolete, slang) A night cart.

Noun (4)

dilly (plural dillies)

  1. Synonym of dilly net
    Synonyms:
    dilly net

Proper noun capitalized: Dilly

Dilly (plural Dillys)

  1. A surname from French.

dilly meaning in Tamil

dilly in Tamil

எளிமையானவர்

Synonyms of dilly

Forms of dilly

Adjective
comparativemore dilly
superlativemost dilly
comparativedillier
superlativedilliest
Noun
pluraldillies
Proper noun
pluralDillys

Origin of dilly

From dill + -y.

From Somersetshire dialect; perhaps a blend of daft and silly.

Contracted from diligence.

Words formed from dilly

Phrases with dilly

Words that rhyme with dilly

22 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about dilly

What does dilly mean?
Dilly means redolent of dill (the herb).
What is dilly in Tamil?
Dilly in Tamil is எளிமையானவர். See Dilly meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is dilly?
Dilly can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce dilly?
Dilly is pronounced /ˈdɪli/.

Words near dilly in the dictionary

  1. dillwad
  2. dillwads
  3. dillwater
  4. dillweed
  5. dillweeds
  6. dilly
  7. dilly bag
  8. dilly bags
  9. dilly bean
  10. dilly beans
  11. dilly dallied

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dilly (page history and authors); Dilly (page history and authors); Dilly (Tamil Wiktionary) (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: EN-AU ck1 dilly.ogg.

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