Word.ws English Dictionary

lully

lully noun: wet or drying linen. Also the alternative form of lullay.

Noun (1)

lully (plural lullies)

  1. (UK, archaic, slang) Wet or drying linen.
  2. (UK, obsolete, slang) A shirt.

Noun (2)

lully (plural lullies)

  1. (obsolete, slang) A child.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Lully

Lully

  1. A surname from French, notably borne by Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–1687), an Italian-born composer.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Lully

Lully

  1. A municipality of Vaud canton, Switzerland

Also used as

lully is also the alternative form of lullay.

Forms of lully

plurallullies

Origin of lully

Possibly from laundry, or lily (compare snow (“laundry”) as in snow-rig). Attested as early as c.1661.

Likely from lullaby, through lullaby-cheat (“child”, literally “lullaby-thing, sleep-stealer”) attested as early as 1648. Possible influence from Etymology 1, see shared phrase: lully-prigger of similar construction to lullaby-cheat. Possible influence from little. See also relations: loll (“favourite child”), and lolly (“child”).

Borrowed from French Lully, from Italian Lulli.

Words formed from lully

  • lully-prigger
  • queer lully
  • Lullist
  • lully-snow-prigger

Questions about lully

What does lully mean?
Lully means wet or drying linen.
What part of speech is lully?
Lully can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of lully?
The plural of lully is lullies.

Words near lully in the dictionary

  1. Lullist
  2. Lullists
  3. lulls
  4. lullsome
  5. Lullubi
  6. lully
  7. Lulogooli
  8. Lulong
  9. Lulonga
  10. Lulsgate Bottom
  11. lulu

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lully (page history and authors); Lully (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: “lully.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lully. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.