Word.ws English Dictionary

pally

/ˈpali/

pally adjective: like a pal; friendly.

Adjective

pally (comparative pallier or more pally, superlative palliest or most pally)

  1. Like a pal; friendly.
    • The O′Briens are the palliest of pals with the Prince of Wales and when HRH is in Biarritz he and Jay are inseparable.1929, Basil Woon, From Deauville to Monte Carlo, page 157
    • Words are the friendliest and palliest things I know.1942, Seán O'Faoláin, Peadar O'Donnell, The Bell, volume 5, page 157

Noun (1)

pally (plural pallies)

  1. (US) An affectionate term of address.
    • ‘Sit here, pally.’ He pushed me down.1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, published 2010, page 164
    • Well, a lot of water has flown under the bridges since then, pally, and while I have been laying off lately, I′m still the same old Joey, which is more than I can say for that O′Hara creep.1951, Cue: The Weekly Magazine of New York Life, page M-77
  2. (Australia, US) A slightly derogatory and insulting term of address.
    • What do you think you are doing, pally?

Noun (2)

pally (plural pallies)

  1. (slang, fantasy roleplaying games) A paladin.

Noun (3) capitalized: Pally

Pally (plural Pallies)

  1. (colloquial, derogatory, offensive) A Palestinian.

pally meaning in Malayalam and Kannada

pally in Malayalam

on good terms, friendly, close
ചങ്ങാത്തം പുലർത്തുന്ന, ഉറ്റചങ്ങാത്തം പുലർത്തുന്ന, മിത്ര, ഹാർദ്ദ, കൂട്ടായ, സ്നേഹശീലമായ

pally in Kannada

ಸ್ನೇಹಿತನಂಥ, ಮಿತ್ರನಂಥ

Examples of pally in a sentence

  • When there were Australian officers everyone was more pally and sociable which made it easier for the lady in charge to entertain the party.2010, Donald Munro, Diaries of a Stretcher-Bearer 1916-1918, page 100:
  • The chap I′m most pally with is Fright who is nearly sixty now but still climbs like a youngster.2011, David Rowley, Erections in the Far East, page 19:
  • Pally, we used to take slices off the heat, put them on our biscuits and make toast.”1968, Alex La Guma, Tattoo Marks and Nails: A Walk in the Night: And Other Stories, page 95:
  • As the Giants moved West, most accepted Horace Stoneham′s apologia: “I can′t stay where I am, pally.1993, Roger Kahn, The Era: 1947-1957, When the Yankees, the Giants, and the Dodgers Ruled the World, page 342:

Forms of pally

Adjective
comparativepallier
comparativemore pally
superlativepalliest
superlativemost pally
Noun
pluralpallies
pluralPallies
alternative formPali

Origin of pally

From pal + -y (adjectival suffix). Piecewise doublet of friary.

From pal + -y (diminutive suffix).

Clipping of paladin + -y (diminutive suffix).

Words formed from pally

Phrases with pally

Words that rhyme with pally

13 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about pally

What does pally mean?
Pally means like a pal; friendly.
What is pally in Malayalam?
Pally in Malayalam is ചങ്ങാത്തം പുലർത്തുന്ന, ഉറ്റചങ്ങാത്തം പുലർത്തുന്ന, മിത്ര. See Pally meaning in Malayalam.
How do you use pally in a sentence?
When there were Australian officers everyone was more pally and sociable which made it easier for the lady in charge to entertain the party.
What part of speech is pally?
Pally can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce pally?
Pally is pronounced /ˈpali/ (UK).

Words near pally in the dictionary

  1. Palluch
  2. Palluite
  3. Palluites
  4. pallus
  5. pallwise
  6. pally
  7. pally-wally
  8. Pallywood
  9. palm
  10. Palm Bay
  11. Palm Beach

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pally (page history and authors); Pally (page history and authors); pally (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); pally (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-pally.wav.

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