Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Amusingly odd or whimsically comical.
- noun A buffoon.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A waggish fellow; one whose practice or occupation is to raise mirth by odd tricks; a jester, merry-andrew, or buffoon.
- noun A farce; a dramatic entertainment intended to amuse.
- To jest; play the buffoon.
- To lead or influence by jest or trick; cajole.
- To turn into a jest.
- Waggish; facetious; comical.
- Ludicrous; queer; laughable; ridiculous: as, a droll story; a droll scene.
- Synonyms Comical, Funny, etc. (see
ludicrous ); amusing, farcical, waggish, fantastic, whimsical.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One whose practice it is to raise mirth by odd tricks; a jester; a buffoon; a merry-andrew.
- noun Something exhibited to raise mirth or sport, as a puppet, a farce, and the like.
- intransitive verb rare To jest; to play the buffoon.
- transitive verb To lead or influence by jest or trick; to banter or jest; to cajole.
- transitive verb rare To make a jest of; to set in a comical light.
- adjective Queer, and fitted to provoke laughter; ludicrous from oddity; amusing and strange.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
oddly humorous ;whimsical ,amusing in aquaint way;waggish - noun archaic A
buffoon - verb archaic To
joke , tojest .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective comical in an odd or whimsical manner
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word droll.
Examples
-
You also get Truffaut's interview excerpts with Hitch, which is as close to a full commentary from him as we'll ever have. imagine what a treat that would be: Hitchcock holding forth in droll glory for nearly two hours.
Michael Giltz: Halloween DVDs: The Exorcist, Psycho, Troll 2 and More Michael Giltz 2010
-
Maybe more time spent in the stacks would have contributed to an understanding of what the word droll means?
Techdirt 2009
-
She calls his droll accusations stupid and misguided, just about.
RadarOnline.com 2008
-
He had always assumed she was a genius, her name a droll ironic touch.
Some Fun Antonya Nelson 2006
-
He had always assumed she was a genius, her name a droll ironic touch.
Some Fun Antonya Nelson 2006
-
He had always assumed she was a genius, her name a droll ironic touch.
Some Fun Antonya Nelson 2006
-
Him whom we allowed formerly for a certain pleasant subtilty, and natural way of giving you an unexpected hit, called a droll, is now mimicked by a biter, who is a dull fellow, that tells you a lie with a grave face, and laughs at you for knowing him no better than to believe him.
The Tatler, Volume 1, 1899 George A. Aitken
-
Apropos of this small affair, I can recall a droll scene, _de eodem genere_, which I witnessed within a week of the other.
Memoirs Charles Godfrey Leland 1863
-
Those who've seen Michael Winterbottom's film A Cock and Bull Story, a surreal treatment of Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy, will recall the droll rivalry of Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan, playing themselves when the periwigs came off.
-
KING: And it worked for your kind of droll approach.
emmy commented on the word droll
a jester!
March 10, 2008
sarra commented on the word droll
curious discussion herein
April 10, 2008
yarb commented on the word droll
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.
- Clement Clarke Moore, The Night before Christmas
April 10, 2008
frindley commented on the word droll
Thinking of "droll" as a noun brings to mind the word drab as a noun.
April 12, 2008
prasadkdr commented on the word droll
His appearance has been a droll but not his contribution.
April 28, 2008
pikachu commented on the word droll
Droll thing life is--that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose.
-Heart of Darkness, Conrad
March 20, 2011
gerbert commented on the word droll
A girlfriend once told me I am a droll person. It sounded derogatory, so I looked it up and was relieved to see that it meant funny. But what kind of funny? Am I some kind of clown to her? I don't feel whimsical like the definition here says. It's so perplexing because there are conflicting definitions. I've interpreted it also as dry or ironic humor. So which is it? Can you tell droll humor from other types?
December 30, 2013