Word.ws English Dictionary

farlie

farlie noun: an unusual or unexpected thing; a wonder.

Noun

farlie (plural farlies)

  1. (UK, obsolete) An unusual or unexpected thing; a wonder.
    • (Whilst thus himselfe to please, the mightie Mountaine tells
      Such farlies of his Cluyd, and of his wondrous Wells)1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, song 10 p. 161
    • I saw, in passing, many a farlie and fine things, such as St Paul's and the Tower1822, John Galt, The Steam-Boat

Forms of farlie

pluralfarlies

Origin of farlie

From Middle English farli, ferly, ferlich, feorlich (“a wonderful thing, a marvel, a wonder”), from Middle English farli, ferly, verlich, ferlik, ferlic, feorlic (“terrible, marvellous, wonderful”), from Old English fǣrlīċ (“sudden, unexpected, quick, horrible”), equivalent to fear + -ly. Cognate with Scots ferlie (“farlie”), Old Norse ferlíki, ferlíkan (“a monster, abnormality, monstrosity”), Old Norse ferligr (“monstrous”).

Questions about farlie

What does farlie mean?
Farlie means an unusual or unexpected thing; a wonder.
What part of speech is farlie?
Farlie is a noun.
What is the plural of farlie?
The plural of farlie is farlies.

Words near farlie in the dictionary

  1. Farlesses
  2. Farlesthorpe
  3. Farleton
  4. farletuzumab
  5. Farley
  6. farlie
  7. farlies
  8. farling
  9. Farlington
  10. Farlow
  11. Farlows

Source and license

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