Word.ws English Dictionary

lilly-low

lilly-low noun: a flame, especially a bright, small or lovely one.

Noun

lilly-low (plural lilly-lows)

  1. (Scotland, UK, dialectal, obsolete) A flame, especially a bright, small or lovely one.
    • Should any pretend to quibble at the little eſcapes of ſuch men, the bulk of the world would know no more of it than of the Anatomiſts interſcapularia, and the reſt would conſider it as a north-country Lilly-Low, that is, a mere ſtraw-fire.1782, Robert Robinson, “The Preface”, in Arcana: in VIII. Letters to a Friend, London: […] W. Lepard and J. Buckland, page xv
    • Then she arranged the logs in a more scientific manner, blew one long, well-directed breath, causing what Yorkshire folk call "a lilly-low," then nodded her head significantly, with another broad smile.1868, J. Reynard, “The Victoria Mission: From the Journal of the Rev. J. Reynard, 1866-67”, in Ninth Annual Report of the Columbia Mission for the Year 1867, London: Rivingtons, page 21

Forms of lilly-low

plurallilly-lows
alternative formlilly low
alternative formlillylow

Origin of lilly-low

Likely from Scots lilly (“lovely”) + low (“flame”). The first term might also directly come from liefly.

Questions about lilly-low

What does lilly-low mean?
Lilly-low means a flame, especially a bright, small or lovely one.
What part of speech is lilly-low?
Lilly-low is a noun.
What is the plural of lilly-low?
The plural of lilly-low is lilly-lows.

Words near lilly-low in the dictionary

  1. Lillos
  2. lills
  3. lilly
  4. lilly pillies
  5. lilly pilly
  6. lilly-low
  7. lilly-lows
  8. lilly-pillies
  9. lilly-pilly
  10. Lillyan
  11. Lillyanna

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lilly-low (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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