# frolic
## English
### Alternative forms

* frolick

### Etymology

From Dutch vrolijk (“cheerful”), from Middle Dutch vrolijc, from Old Dutch frōlīk, from Proto-Germanic *frawalīkaz. Compare German fröhlich (“blitheful, gaily, happy, merry”).
The first element, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *frawaz, is cognate with Middle English frow (“hasty”); the latter element, ultimately from *-līkaz, is cognate with -ly, -like.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈfɹɒlɪk/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈfɹɑlɪk/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɒlɪk
* Hyphenation: frol‧ic

### Adjective

frolic (comparative more frolic, superlative most frolic)
* (now rare) Merry, joyous, full of mirth; later especially, frolicsome, sportive, full of playful mischief. [from 1530s]
** 1645, John Milton, “L’Allegro”, in Poems‎, London: Humphrey Moseley, page 31:The frolick wind that breathes the Spring, Zephyr with Aurora playing, As he met her once a Maying There on Beds of Violets blew,
** 1682, Edmund Waller, “Of Love”, in Poems, &c. written upon several occasions, and to several persons‎, 5th edition, London: H. Herringman, published 1686, page 73:For women, born to be controul’d, Stoop to the forward and the bold, Affect the haughty and the proud, The gay, the frollick, and the loud.
** 1766, Joseph Addison, The Spectator - Volume 5 - Page 304:You meet him at the tables and conversations of the wise, the impertinent, the grave, the frolic, and the witty; [...]
** 1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew:Beale, under this frolic menace, took nothing back at all; he was indeed apparently on the point of repeating his extravagence, but Miss Overmore instructed her little charge that she was not to listen to his bad jokes [...].
* (obsolete, rare) Free; liberal; bountiful; generous.

### Verb

frolic (third-person singular simple present frolics, present participle frolicking, simple past and past participle frolicked)
* (intransitive) To make merry; to have fun; to romp; to behave playfully and uninhibitedly. [from 1580s]
    We saw the lambs frolicking in the meadow.
** 2009, Alex Turner (lyrics and music), “Secret Door”, in Humbug (album), performed by Arctic Monkeys:Fools on parade frolic and fuck about to make her gaze Turn to a scribble on a page by a picture that holds her absence But you're daft to think she'd care
* (transitive, archaic) To cause to be merry.

#### Derived terms

* rollick

#### Translations
### Noun

frolic (plural frolics)
* Gaiety; merriment. [from 1610s]
** 1876, Louisa May Alcott, “The King of Clubs and the Queen of Hearts”, in Hallberger's Illustrated Magazine: 1876:the annual jubilee […] filled the souls of old and young with visions of splendour, frolic and fun.
** 2012 (original 1860), Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun - Page 276:
    By the old-fashioned magnificence of this procession, it might worthily have included his Holiness in person, with a suite of attendant Cardinals, if those sacred dignitaries would kindly have lent their aid to heighten the frolic of the Carnival.
* A playful antic.
** 1680, James Dillon, 3rd Earl of Roscommon, Art of Poetry:He would be at his frolic once again.
* (obsolete, chiefly US) A social gathering.
** 1820, Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:He came clattering up to the school door with an invitation to Ichabod to attend a merry-making or “quilting frolic,” to be held that evening at Mynheer Van Tassel’s

#### Derived terms

* frolicful
* frolicker
* frolicky
* frolicly
* frolicness
* frolic of his own
* frolic pad
* frolicsome
* milling frolic
* turtle frolic

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### See also

* cavort

### References

* John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “frolic”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.