wally

UK/ˈwɒli/

wally noun: a fool. Also the alternative form of whally.

Noun

wally (plural wallies)

(Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, slang) A fool.
- 'Don't be such a wally,' Ruby said. 'Felicity is way smarter than you could ever hope to be.'2014, Richard Newsome, The House of Puzzles, page 111
(Essex, London, colloquial) A large pickled gherkin or cucumber.
- Mushy peas (£1.40) are ... mushy, and wallies (45p) – pickled gherkins to you – come sliced and prettily served in the shape of a flower.2003, Charles Campion, The Rough Guide to London Restaurants, page 215

Verb

wally

(Essex, colloquial, obsolete) Alternative pronunciation (and hence spelling) of value
- Let them that wallys the sheep watch 'em.1880, Sabine Baring-Gould, Mehalah: a story of the salt marshes

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Wally

Wally

A diminutive of the male given names of Waldo, Walter, Wallabee, and Wallace.
- "'Mr. Szalla' is my eighty-two-year-old father, Nikki. Please call me 'Wally'."
- "Well. 'Wally'."
- I felt my face burn pleasantly. "Wally" was such a comfortable old-shoe kind of name.2005, Joyce Carol Oates, Mother, Missing, Harper Perennial, page 108

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Wally

the Wally

The trophy awarded to winners of an NHRA national event (named after founder Wally Parks).

Also used as

wally is also the alternative form of whally.

wally meaning in Marathi, Bengali and Nepali

wally in Marathi

वॉली

wally in Bengali

ওয়েলি

wally in Nepali

वैली

Forms of wally

plural	wallies

Phrases with wally

Wally World

Words that rhyme with wally

14 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about wally

What does wally mean?: Wally means a fool.
What is wally in Marathi?: Wally in Marathi is वॉली. See Wally meaning in Marathi.
What part of speech is wally?: Wally can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce wally?: Wally is pronounced /ˈwɒli/ (UK).
What is the plural of wally?: The plural of wally is wallies.

Words near wally in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: wally (page history and authors); Wally (page history and authors); wally (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wally (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wally (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-wally.ogg.

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