Word.ws English Dictionary

Moll Kelly

Moll Kelly proper noun: a fictional person used in swearing oaths, especially "By the powers of Moll Kelly", often in caricatures of the speech of uneducated Irish people.

Proper noun

Moll Kelly

  1. (obsolete) A fictional person used in swearing oaths, especially "By the powers of Moll Kelly", often in caricatures of the speech of uneducated Irish people.
    • Hubbuboo! by my soul, it is all true that I tell ye,
      I stood it myself, till the heart in my belly
      Flew up to my mouth, by the soul of Moll Kelly!
      And the thing sav'd my life was the drop of a dram.1795 "Planxty Ne-Boch-Lech" The New Lyric Repository (London: J. Osborne) pp.102–103
    • 'An Irish cat run away!' sneered Grammachree, 'no; never! by the powers of Moll Kelly! they eat one another up!'1821 "A Real Paddy" [Pierce Egan] Real Life in Ireland p.41

Examples of Moll Kelly in a sentence

  • Bravo! bravo! och! by the powers of Moll Kelly's great big kettle, but we must be after having a toast now, so be after giving us a dacent one, Mr.1826, “The Union Society”, in The Universal Songster: Or, Museum of Mirth, volume 3, London, page 237:
  • Be the piper of Moll Kelly, you're a broth of a boy with the fair sex; go on and prosper; faith, I think you might turn Turk with advantage.1861 F. C. Armstrong The Frigate and the Lugger vol.I p.122 (London: T. Cautley Newby)
  • Well, be the power of Moll Kelly, what do you think?1871, “Bartle O'Barry”, in Queer customers: what they did, and what they didn't, page 147:
  • "Be the powers av Moll Kelly!" ejaculated the saloonkeeper, "but that bates all, yet!["]1902, John Thomas McIntyre, The Ragged Edge: A Tale of Ward Life & Politics, McClure, Phillips, page 180:

Forms of Moll Kelly

alternative formMoll Kelley

Questions about Moll Kelly

What does Moll Kelly mean?
Moll Kelly means a fictional person used in swearing oaths, especially "By the powers of Moll Kelly", often in caricatures of the speech of uneducated Irish people.
How do you use Moll Kelly in a sentence?
Bravo! bravo! och! by the powers of Moll Kelly's great big kettle, but we must be after having a toast now, so be after giving us a dacent one, Mr.
What part of speech is Moll Kelly?
Moll Kelly is a proper noun.

Words near Moll Kelly in the dictionary

  1. molka
  2. moll
  3. moll buzzer
  4. moll buzzers
  5. Moll Kelley
  6. Moll Kelly
  7. molla
  8. mollag
  9. mollags
  10. mollah
  11. mollahs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Moll Kelly (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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