Word.ws English Dictionary

rolly

UK/ˈɹəʊlɪ/US/ˈɹoʊli/

rolly adjective: rolling; having the ability to roll, usually due to wheels attached on the bottom. Also the alternative form of rolley.

Adjective

rolly (not generally comparable, comparative more rolly, superlative most rolly)

  1. (informal, not comparable, usually) Rolling; having the ability to roll, usually due to wheels attached on the bottom.
    • “Back east, eh?” Jogi plucked a rolly bug from a grape. He said in a dry tone, “He didn't like you working for us, did he?”1957, Vinnie Williams, The Fruit Tramp
    • We went inside, with Gayleen taking a little longer than usual due to her walking stick and her portable oxygen tank on a little rolly cart, and got a good table in the smoking section.2009, Garland Stewart, Say Uncle, page 166
  2. (comparable, not comparable, usually) Rough, turbulent, characterized by large or rapid waves.
    • San Diego’s legacy to America’s Cup history has little to do with the light-air, rolly-sea conditions off Point Loma1995 January, Tim Murphy, “The San Diego uncertainty principle”, in Cruising World, page 63
    • As soon as the Wave passed by—our earlier complacency had only cost us a few hours of discomfort, but no real danger—we up anchored to see if we could find somewhere in the anchorage that was less rolly.2005, Lona Gray, Caught by the Lure of the Sea, page 168

Proper noun capitalized: Rolly

Rolly

  1. A diminutive of the male given name Roland.

Also used as

rolly is also the alternative form of rolley.

rolly is also the alternative form of rollie.

Forms of rolly

Adjective
comparativemore rolly
superlativemost rolly
Noun
pluralrollies

Origin of rolly

From roll + -y. Compare older roly-poly.

Phrases with rolly

Questions about rolly

What does rolly mean?
Rolly means rolling; having the ability to roll, usually due to wheels attached on the bottom.
What part of speech is rolly?
Rolly can be an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce rolly?
Rolly is pronounced /ˈɹəʊlɪ/ (UK).

Words near rolly in the dictionary

  1. rollunders
  2. rollup
  3. rollups
  4. rollway
  5. rollways
  6. rolly
  7. rolly pollies
  8. rolly polly
  9. rolly-polies
  10. rolly-poly
  11. rolly-pooly

Source and license

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