doll

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɒl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /dɑl/, /dɔl/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): [dɒːɫ]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒl

From Doll, a popular pet form of Dorothy.

doll (plural dolls or (Internet slang) dollz)

1. A toy in the form of a human.

   Hyponym: action figure

2. (slang) An attractive young woman.
   • 1861, Elizabeth Gaskell, The Grey Woman:

     Some fine day we may have the country raised, and the gendarmes down upon us from Strasburg, and all owing to your pretty doll, with her cunning ways of coming over you.

3. (US, Australia, dated) A term of endearment: darling, sweetheart.
   • 2008, Stephen King, Willa:

     "They didn't sell cigarettes where you were, doll?" Palmer asked.

4. (US, dated) A good-natured, cooperative or helpful girl.
   • 2017, Chunk in "Skate-lebrity", The ZhuZhus

     Ow! These things are defective. Pipsqueak, be a doll, I need a new pair, pronto!

5. The smallest or pet pig in a litter.
6. A kind of barrier used in horse racing.
   • 1885, William Day, The Racehorse in Training, page 87:

     On a beautiful spring morning, after the “dolls and chains” had been removed to allow the horses room to pass through, in galloping “across the flat,” […]

7. (rail transport) A short signal post mounted on a bracket mounted on the main signal post, or on a signal gantry.
   • 1943 March and April, “Notes and News: Peculiar Distant Signals on L.N.E.R”, in Railway Magazine, page 116:

     The signals are on a three-doll bracket post; one doll carries two [signal] arms, one above the other.

8. (slang) A barbiturate or amphetamine pill.
   • 1966, Jacqueline Susann, Valley of the Dolls, page 227:

     Each night she looked at the bottle of Seconals with affection. She never could do this without the dolls. She would have spent sleepless nights, smoking, worrying—and she would have lost her nerve.

• golliwog
• puppet
• teddy, teddy bear

A shortening of dollar.

doll (plural dolls)

1. (US, obsolete) A dollar.

doll (uncountable)

1. Obsolete form of dal.

• Henry Yule, A[rthur] C[oke] Burnell (1903) “doll”, in William Crooke, editor, Hobson-Jobson […] , London: John Murray, […].

• Jonathon Green (2024) “doll n.¹”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang
• Jonathon Green (2024) “doll n.² (drug)”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang
• doll on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• LOL'd, LOLd, lol'd, lold

Inherited from Latin dōlium.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencian) [ˈdoʎ]

doll m (plural dolls)

1. stream, jet
2. pitcher, vase

• a doll

• “doll” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Occasionally found in older texts, but chiefly introduced to standard German during the 20th century from Central German and German Low German dialects, from northern Middle High German dol and Middle Low German dol, from Old Saxon dol, from Proto-Germanic *dulaz. Doublet of toll (“great; crazy”), which compare.

• IPA^(key): /dɔl/

• Audio

  (file)

doll (strong nominative masculine singular doller, comparative doller, superlative am dollsten)

1. (informal) firm, hard, forceful, strong (of actions, also of emotions)

   Der Schlag war nicht doll, aber er hat mich genau auf die Nase getroffen. ― The blow wasn't hard, but it hit me right in the nose.

2. (colloquial, chiefly in negation or sarcastically) good, great, satisfactory

   Ich geb ja zu, dass es keine dolle Idee war. ― Well, I do admit it wasn't a very good idea.

3. (colloquial, with Ding) extraordinary, remarkable

   Na, das is’ ja ’n dolles Ding! ― Now, that is some news!

• The word is readily attestable in written representations of spoken and informal German. The sense “firm, hard” is now also found occasionally in more standard prose, chiefly as an adverb (see below).

• toll

doll

1. (informal) firmly, hard, forcefully, vehemently, strong (of actions, also of emotions)

   Du musst doller drücken, sonst geht es nicht. ― You need to push harder, otherwise it won't work.

   • 1995, “Meh' Bier”, in Auf einem Auge blöd, performed by Fettes Brot:

     Wir feiern laut und doll bis alle auf den Tischen springen / Und am Höhepunkt der Party fangen wir laut an zu singen.

     We party hard and loudly until everyone climbs the tables / And in the party's climax we start singing loudly.

• “doll” in Duden online
• “doll” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

From Middle Low German and Old Saxon dol, from Proto-Germanic *dulaz.

doll

1. mad, angry, furious
2. rabid