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dolly

Pronunciation: /ˈdɑli/

The English word “dolly” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A doll.
  2. A roughly cylindrical wooden object used as a base when molding pie crust.
  3. A disc with downward legs and a vertical handle, used for agitating laundry.
  4. A device turned on a vertical axis by a handle or a winch, giving a circular motion to ore being washed.
  5. A tool with an indented head for shaping the head of a rivet.
  6. In pile driving, a block interposed between the head of the pile and the ram of the driver.
  7. A small truck with a single wide roller used for moving heavy beams, columns, etc., in bridge building.
  8. Synonym of hand truck (an L-shaped box-moving handcart with handles at one end).
  9. A moving dolly; a small, flat, rectangular platform on wheels, made to be slipped under a piece of furniture or other load.
  10. An unpowered vehicle (trailer) designed for connection to a tractor unit, truck or prime mover vehicle, with strong traction power.
  11. A compact, narrow-gauge locomotive used for moving construction trains, switching, etc.
  12. A specialized piece of film equipment resembling a little cart on which a camera is mounted.
  13. A young woman, especially one who is frivolous or vapid.
  14. A fashionable young woman, one who follows the latest music or clothing fashions.
  15. A ball hit by a batsman such that it goes gently to a fielder for a simple catch.
  16. A marker placed on the winning number by the dealer at roulette.
  17. An old gambling device, found in dolly shops, with the figure of an old man or "dolly", and a spiral hole down which a dropped marble would proceed to one of a set of numbered holes.

verb

  1. To hit a dolly.
  2. To move (an object) using a dolly.
  3. To move a camera (usually toward or away from its subject) using a dolly.

Etymology

From doll + -y, from the given name Dorothy, originally applied either to a woman or female pet or to a children's toy, and expanded to refer to various types of contrivances or devices. The Online Etymology Dictionary, while considering the reason for applying it to such devices unobvious, compares how the names jack, jenny and jimmy are also applied to devices.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.