jolly-hockey-sticks
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.42 in modern English
45
Scrabble Score
17
Letters
6
Syllables
11
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Wholesomely athletic and enthusiastic, in a manner stereotypically associated with traditional British public schools for girls.
British usage
Example Sentences
- "Polly couldn't abide Pat Walsh's bossy, jolly hockey-sticks manner and her curious predilection for calling absolutely everyone "babe.""
- "We had to march along behind one of our mistresses — they were all very jolly hockey-sticks. March to church and then a lockstep turn about the park, everyone staring at us, knowing where we were from."
- "There was a brigade of horsy women with enormous arses, moustaches and jolly-hockey-sticks ideas about everything walloping about in all directions, whose skins had weathered like leather and whose breath and hands always smelled of horse saliva and dung."
- "Boarding-school life was a lot like Mallory Towers or St Clare's, the fictional jolly-hockey-sticks schools created by Enid Blyton. 'We would have midnight feasts, and I suppose it was a bit like the Blyton books,' recalls Susan Lawrence."
Etymology
From a catchphrase introduced in a BBC radio comedy programme, Educating Archie (1950)http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-jol1.htm.
Usage
- British usage
Inflected Forms
more jolly-hockey-sticks (comparative)
most jolly-hockey-sticks (superlative)