# molly
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈmɒli/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈmɑli/
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɒli
* Homophones: mollie, Mollie, Molly

### Etymology 1

From Molly, the personal name, a pet form of Mary. In some cases it is possibly derived from mollitia (“softness, weakness”). Drug sense probably influenced by the initial of MDMA.

#### Noun

molly (countable and uncountable, plural mollies)
* (now chiefly Ireland) A woman or girl, especially of low status.
* (slang) An effeminate male, a male homosexual.
* (slang, uncountable) Pure MDMA powder.
    Synonym: mandy
** 2013, “We Can't Stop”, in Bangerz, performed by Miley Cyrus:So la-da-di-da-di, we like to party / Dancing with Molly / Doing whatever we want
** 2022, Sean Thor Conroe, Fuccboi‎, Hachette, →ISBN:Was pissed now. But also hyper-lit, euphoric almost, given the adrenaline plus molly.
* A mollemoke.
* A female cat, a she-cat (usually spayed)
* A bird, the wagtail.
* A molly bolt.

##### Derived terms

* mollycoddle
* molly-guard
* molly-handed
* molly house
* hairy molly

#### Verb

molly (third-person singular simple present mollies, present participle mollying, simple past and past participle mollied)
* To engage in (male) homosexual activity with.
** 1998, Netta Murray Goldsmith, The Worst of Crimes, page 79:I said, "I never mollied you." My Lord, I never laid Hands upon him, nor touch'd him.
** 2007, Matt Cook, A Gay History of Britain:On one occasion, Partridge was nearly mobbed in a molly-house when some men called him a 'treacherous, blowing-up, mollying bitch, and swore they'd massacre anybody that should betray them.'
** 2017, Peter Ackroyd, Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day:It is a case of the biter bit, or the molly-taker mollied, but it is also an interesting example of the ways in which the criminal underworld and sexual underworld met in eighteenth-century London

#### See also

* moll

### Etymology 2

From Mollienesia, an invalid taxonomic name for the genus, influenced by the personal name Molly.

#### Noun

molly (plural mollies)
* A fish of the genus Poecilia, except for those known as guppies.

##### Derived terms

* molly miller

##### Translations
#### See also

* guppy

### Etymology 3
#### Noun

molly (plural mollies)
* (India, South Asia) Alternative spelling of mali (“a member of a caste in South Asia whose traditional occupation is gardening; hence, any South Asian gardener”).

#### See also

* hog molly
* mollydocker
* molly wop

### Etymology 4

Clipping of Molotov.

#### Noun

molly (plural mollies)
* (video games, slang) A Molotov cocktail.
** 2020 August 5, Andreas Stavropoulos, “Hiko on Killjoy's Nanoswarm: "I think they do a lot of damage too fast and I think it's hard to even tell you're in a molly sometimes"”, in Dot Esports‎, archived from the original on 2022-08-11:Brimstone, Viper, and Phoenix's mollies were adjusted during a closed beta patch, changing the damage tick speed so players couldn't avoid damage by bunny hopping. Killjoy's Nanoswarm will likely follow suit.

### References

* ↑ “molly”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

### Further reading

* “molly n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present