Emily Dickinson Lexicon

JOL'LY, a. [Fr. joli, pretty; It. giulivo, joyful, merry. Qu. Sax. geola, gehol, a feast, the yule, or feast of the nativity.]

1. Merry; gay; lively; full of life and mirth; jovial. It expresses more life and noise than cheerful; as, a jolly troop of huntsmen. – Shak. [It is seldom applied in colloquial usage to respectable company. We rarely say of respectable persons, they are jolly. It is applied to the young and the vulgar.]
2. Expressing mirth or inspiring it. And with his jolly pipe delights the groves. – Prior. The coachman is swelled into jolly dimensions by frequent potations of malt liquors. – Irving.
3. Exciting mirth and gayety; as, jolly May. – Dryden.
4. Like one in high health; pretty. – South.