DROLL • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Droll

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adjective

Droll adj. (compar. droller; superl. drollest) Queer, and fitted to provoke laughter; ludicrous from oddity; amusing and strange.

Synonyms: Comic; comical; farcical; diverting; humorous; ridiculous; queer; odd; waggish; facetious; merry; laughable; ludicrous. Droll, Laughable, Comical. Laughable is the generic term, denoting anything exciting laughter or worthy of laughter; comical denotes something of the kind exhibited in comedies, something humorous of the kind exhibited in comedies, something, as it were, dramatically humorous; droll stands lower on the scale, having reference to persons or things which excite laughter by their buffoonery or oddity. A laughable incident; a comical adventure; a droll story.

verb

Droll v. t.

To lead or influence by jest or trick; to banter or jest; to cajole. "Men that will not be reasoned into their senses, may yet be laughed or drolled into them."

To make a jest of; to set in a comical light. (R.) "This drolling everything is rather fatiguing."

Droll v. i. (past & past part. drolled; pres. part. drolling) To jest; to play the buffoon. (R.)

noun

Droll n.

One whose practice it is to raise mirth by odd tricks; a jester; a buffoon; a merry-andrew.

Something exhibited to raise mirth or sport, as a puppet, a farce, and the like.

See images of 'Droll'

Etymology of 'Droll'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Droll" Quotes from Famous Books

... man, presented himself as the captain who was to conduct me to the top of the Kopaunik. His clerk was a fat, knock-kneed, lubberly-looking fellow, with a red face, a short neck, a low forehead, and bushy eyebrows and mustachios, as fair as those of a Norwegian; to add to his droll appearance, one of his eyes was ...

— Servia, Youngest Member of the European Family • Andrew Archibald Paton

... was apparently wiping away a tear. Was the song too deep for them, or perhaps he did not sing the words distinctly, or perhaps they had laughed and he had not noticed? At any rate he would try the next verse, which was certain to amuse them. He looked as droll as he could, and by way of heightening the effect, stuck his two thumbs into the armholes of his waistcoat and wagged his hands in ...

— The Cock-House at Fellsgarth • Talbot Baines Reed

... examined his own locality is attested by his "Natural History of Selborne." Thoreau was such a stay-at-home that he refused to go to Paris lest he miss something of interest in Concord. "I have traveled a good deal in Concord," he says in his droll way. And one of the most delicious instances of provinciality that I ever came across is Thoreau's remark on returning Dr. Kane's "Arctic Explorations" to a friend who had lent him the book—"Most of the phenomena therein ...

— Our Friend John Burroughs • Clara Barrus

... room of the Ainslee house Grandma Wentworth looked reproachfully at a flushed, busy girl who was laughing and singing snatches of droll ditties the while she emptied closets and dresser drawers and tucked things into four trunks, two suitcases ...

— Green Valley • Katharine Reynolds

... of the matter, I was laughing at the droll effect the line of frieze coats presented as they rode side by side over the stone-walls, when an observation near ...

— Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 1 (of 2) • Charles Lever

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