Word.ws English Dictionary

loblolly

loblolly noun: gruel.

Noun

loblolly (countable and uncountable, plural loblollies)

  1. (dialectal) Gruel.
  2. (UK, dialectal) A thick stew; lobscouse or similar.
  3. (Southern, US) A mudhole.
    • he and Narcissa paddled and splashed with tucked-up garments and muddy bottoms, after the crudest of whittled boats, or made loblollies by treading and treading in one spot with the intense oblivion of alchemists.1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage, published 1993, page 122
  4. (dialectal) A bumpkin or lout.
    • Whil'st he, not dreaming of thy folly,
      Lies gaping like a great Lob-lolly1675, Lucian (trans. Charles Cotton), Burlesque upon Burlesque: or, The scoffer scoft, 86
    • This also is to be as silly as that jolt-headed loblolly of a carter, who, having laid his waggon fast in a slough, down on his marrow-bones was calling on the strong-backed deity, Hercules, might and main, to help him at a dead lift, but all the while forgot to goad on his oxen and lay his...1694, François Rabelais, (trans. Thomas Urquhart and Peter Antony Motteux), The Fourth Book.
  5. Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda).
  6. Loblolly bay (plant).

Verb

loblolly (third-person singular simple present loblollies, present participle loblollying, simple past and past participle loblollied)

  1. To behave in a loutish manner.
    • You'd rather lob-lolly about these refreshment-rooms, and stuff yourselves until you can't stir.1898, William Black, Wild Eelin, page 174, OCLC 2066856.

Forms of loblolly

Noun
pluralloblollies
alternative formlob-lolly
alternative formlob lolly
alternative formloblollie
alternative formlob-lollie
alternative formloplolly
Verb
third-person singular presentloblollies
present participleloblollying
past participleloblollied
pastloblollied

Origin of loblolly

From Yorkshire dialect lob (“boil”, literally “bubbling up”) + dialect lolly (“broth”).

Words formed from loblolly

Phrases with loblolly

Questions about loblolly

What does loblolly mean?
Loblolly means gruel.
What part of speech is loblolly?
Loblolly can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of loblolly?
The plural of loblolly is loblollies.

Words near loblolly in the dictionary

  1. Lobito
  2. Loblaw
  3. Loblaws
  4. loblollied
  5. loblollies
  6. loblolly
  7. loblolly bay
  8. loblolly bays
  9. loblolly boy
  10. loblolly boys
  11. loblolly pine

Source and license

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