# jelly
## English
### Alternative forms

* gelly (obsolete)

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈd͡ʒɛl.i/
* Rhymes: -ɛli
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Audio (US):(file)

### Etymology 1

From Middle English gele, borrowed from Old French gelee, borrowed from Early Medieval Latin gelāta, from Latin gelō + -āta. Doublet of gelee.

#### Noun

jelly (countable and uncountable, plural jellies)
* (Commonwealth) A dessert made by boiling gelatine (or a plant-based alternative such as agar or carrageenan), sugar and some flavouring (often derived from fruit) and allowing it to set.
    Synonym: (North America) jello
* (chiefly Canada, US) A clear or translucent fruit preserve, made from fruit juice and set using either naturally occurring, or added, pectin.
    Synonym: (Commonwealth) jam
** 1945, Fannie Merritt Farmer and Wilma Lord Perkins (revisor), The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, Eighth edition:
    Perfect jelly is of appetizing flavor; beautifully colored and translucent; tender enough to cut easily with a spoon, yet firm enough to hold its shape when turned from the glass.
** 1975, Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker, The Joy of Cooking, 5th revision:
    Jelly has great clarity. Two cooking processes are involved. First, the juice alone is extracted from the fruit. Only that portion thin and clear enough to drip through a cloth is cooked with sugar until sufficiently firm to hold its shape. It is never stiff and never gummy.
* (Caribbean, Jamaica) Clipping of jelly coconut.
* A savoury substance, derived from meat, that has the same texture as the dessert.
* Any substance or object having the consistency of the dessert or preserve.
    calf's-foot jelly
** 1821, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume 8, page 67:Sam floored him perpetually, and beat his face to a jelly, without getting a scratch.
** 1900 December – 1901 August, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “chapter 24”, in The First Men in the Moon, London: George Newnes, […], published 1901, →OCLC:[…] some of the profounder scholars are altogether too great for locomotion, and are carried from place to place in a sort of sedan tub, wabbling jellies of knowledge that enlist my respectful astonishment.
* (zoology) A jellyfish.
** 2014, Theo Tait, ‘Water-Borne Zombies’, London Review of Books, volume 36, number 5:Species of the phylum Cnidaria – the classic jelly – have existed in something close to their current form for at least 565 million years; Ctenophora, the comb jellies, are not much younger.
* (slang, now rare) A pretty girl; a girlfriend.
** 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage, published 1993, page 25:‘Gowan goes to Oxford a lot,’ the boy said. ‘He′s got a jelly there.’
* (US, slang) A large backside, especially a woman's.
** 2001, Destiny's Child, “Bootylicious” (song)
    I shake my jelly at every chance / When I whip with my hips you slip into a trance
** 2001, George Dell, Dance Unto the Lord, page 94:At that Sister Samantha seemed to shake her jelly so that she sank back into her chair.
* (colloquial) Clipping of gelignite.
* (colloquial) A jelly shoe.
** 2006, David L. Marcus, What It Takes to Pull Me Through:Mary Alice gazed at a picture of herself wearing jellies and an oversized turquoise T-shirt that matched her eyes […]
* (colloquial, US) Blood.

##### Synonyms

* (dessert made by boiling gelatin): (US) jello, Jell-O
* (fruit preserve): jam, marmalade
* (gelatinous meat product): aspic

##### Derived terms

* astral jelly
* blood jelly
* bloodybelly comb jelly
* box jelly
* bread jelly
* coconut jelly
* comb-jelly
* comb jelly
* crystal jelly
* giant phantom jelly
* golden jelly fungus
* grape jelly
* grass jelly
* hair jelly
* hedgerow jelly
* jellification
* jellify
* jelly baby
* jelly bean
* jelly belly
* jelly blubber
* jelly bracelet
* jelly cake
* jelly-coconut
* jelly donut
* jelly doughnut
* jelly ear
* jelly-fish
* jellyfish
* jelly fish
* jelly fungus
* jelly glass
* jelly leaf
* jellylike
* jelly of Wharton
* jelly palm
* jelly plant
* jelly powder
* jelly roll
* jelly roll pan
* jelly shot
* jelly tooth
* meat jelly
* mint jelly
* moon jelly
* peachy keen jelly bean
* peanut butter and jelly
* peanut-butter-and-jelly
* pepper jelly
* petroleum jelly
* redcurrant jelly
* royal jelly
* screaming jelly babies
* sea jelly
* star jelly
* toothed jelly fungus
* toothed jelly mushroom
* vegetable jelly
* Wharton's jelly

##### Related terms

* gel
* gelatin

##### Descendants

* → Chickasaw: cheliꞌ, jellꞌ
* → Welsh: jeli, sieli

##### Translations
#### Verb

jelly (third-person singular simple present jellies, present participle jellying, simple past and past participle jellied)
* (transitive) To make into jelly.
* (transitive) To preserve in jelly.
* To wiggle like jelly. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

Clipping of jealous +‎ -y (informal adjective ending).

#### Adjective

jelly (comparative more jelly, superlative most jelly)
* (slang) Jealous.
** 2011 February 28, Abby Normal [username], “Re: OT VERY FUNNY: MY NEW HERO CHARLIE SHEEN”, in rec.games.pinball‎ (Usenet):If the guy wants to party and bang porn stars, and he's not hurting anyone who really cares? I think a lot of guys are just jelly! :-)
** 2011, "Exchange smiles, not saliva", The Banner (Grand Blanc High School), Volume 47, Issue 2, December 2011, page 17:
    "I think other people make rude comments because they're jelly [jealous] bro," Schroer said. "We're just showing our love to other people."
** 2012 January 10, pussykatt [username], “BLIND GOSSIP 01/09/12 **BLIND ITEM 2**”, in alt.gossip.celebrities‎ (Usenet):Shame on all you haters out there! You’re all just jelly!
** For more quotations using this term, see Citations:jelly.

### Etymology 3

* This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Hobson-Jobson: "It would appear from a remark of C. P. Brown (MS. notes) to be Telugu zalli, Tamil shalli, which means properly 'shivers, bits, pieces.'"”

#### Noun

jelly (uncountable)
* (India) Vitrified brick refuse used as metal in building roads.
** 1862, Notes on Building and Road-making, with Rules for Estimating Repairs to Tanks and Channels, page 143:Under pinning with jelly in chunam — one square.

##### References

* Henry Yule, A[rthur] C[oke] Burnell (1903) “jelly”, in William Crooke, editor, Hobson-Jobson […] , London: John Murray, […].

### References

* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “jelly”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
* “jelly”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.