sillier

Adjective

silly (comparative sillier, superlative silliest)

1. Laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance.
   • They were laughing at a silly joke.
   1. (particularly prices) Absurdly large.
      • He cannot achieve celebrity by covering himself with diamonds... or by giving a silly price for a hack.1875 June 26, Saturday Review, 815/2
2. (Scotland, obsolete) Good; pious.
   • The sylyman lay and herde, / And hys wyf answerd.a. 1450, Seven Sages, line 1361
3. (Scotland, obsolete) Holy.
   • ... thrie Saturdayes befor Lambas and thrie efter called the six silie Saturdayes.1650 in 1885, W. Cramond, Church of Rathven, 21
4. (Northern England, Scotland, rare) Pitiful, inspiring compassion, particularly
   • The fire raging upon the silly Carcase.1556 in 1880, William Henry Turner, Selections from the Records of the City of Oxford... 1509–83, 246
5. (Northern England, Scotland, literary, rare) Innocent; suffering undeservedly, especially as an epithet of lambs and sheep.
   • There is no best in þe word, I wene... / That suffuris halfe so myche tene / As doth þe sylly wat.a. 1475, in 1925, Rossell Hope Robbins, Secular Lyrics of the 14th & 15th Centuries, 109

See all 21 meanings of silly

Adverb

sillily (comparative more sillily, superlative most sillily)

1. (dated, hypercorrect) In a silly manner; foolishly.
   • The man walked down the street so sillily that many a bystander stopped and stared slack-jawed.

   Synonyms:

   silly