Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Short and plump; pudgy.
  • noun A short plump person or thing.
  • noun Chiefly British A pudding made of jam or fruit rolled up in pastry dough and baked or steamed until soft.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An old game, somewhat resembling bowls, played with pins and a half-sphere of wood on a floor or smooth plot of ground.
  • noun A sheet of paste spread with jam and rolled up, to form a pudding.
  • noun A low, vulgar person.
  • noun A short, stout person.
  • Of or pertaining to a roly-poly; shaped like a roly-poly; round; pudgy.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • Rolly-poly.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective colloquial short and plump
  • noun A short, plump person.
  • noun UK A steamed pudding made from suet pastry containing jam or fruit.
  • noun In gymnastics, a forward or sideways roll, such as that down a hill.
  • noun A pill bug, potato bug or sowbug.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a rotund individual
  • adjective short and plump
  • noun pudding made of suet pastry spread with jam or fruit and rolled up and baked or steamed

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration and reduplication of roll.]

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Examples

  • The payoff was when roly-poly Mr. Hill tells abs-of-steel Mr. Worthington to chill while he goes solo on the bad guys.

    Is It Too Late to Become a Gamer Nerd? Joe Queenan 2011

  • Dom DeLuise, who spiced up such movies as "Blazing Saddles," "Silent Movie" and "The Cannonball Run" with his manic delivery and roly-poly persona, has died, his son's publicist told CNN.

    Dom DeLuise -- 1933-2009 2009

  • Morros, who made his first public bow at a news conference in Washington on August 12, turned out to be a balding, roly-poly former musician, whose ostensible claim to fame was having composed “The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers.”

    A Covert Affair Jennet Conant 2011

  • Morros, who made his first public bow at a news conference in Washington on August 12, turned out to be a balding, roly-poly former musician, whose ostensible claim to fame was having composed “The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers.”

    A Covert Affair Jennet Conant 2011

  • Little Augie lounged on a couch in the apartment of George White, a roly-poly former New York cop who had busted him several times but kept in friendly contact with the mobster over the years.

    Wild Bill Donovan Douglas Waller 2011

  • Inevitably, her presence is in danger of usurping the traditional dame; but, since the roly-poly Mr Potts is also the show's writer, he ensures he gets a fair slice of the action.

    Dick Whittington - review 2011

  • Although he was slender and spare with silver wire-rimmed glasses, there was something about him that reminded Sharon of a roly-poly Santa Claus.

    Western Man Janet Dailey 2011

  • Dylan was a "healthy, chunky, roly-poly boy," said his aunt, Amy Compton.

    Fairfax man sentenced to 8 years in son's death Tom Jackman 2010

  • "Roll the boiled egg down Astroturf knoll" and "the Baga bronze roly-poly" are two of my works in progress.

    The Cube: Grace Dent's TV OD 2011

  • Little Augie lounged on a couch in the apartment of George White, a roly-poly former New York cop who had busted him several times but kept in friendly contact with the mobster over the years.

    Wild Bill Donovan Douglas Waller 2011

Comments

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  • "Killick and Ahmed came in, the one bearing a roly-poly pudding and the other a sauce-boat of custard...

    "'You may say what you please,' said Jack, 'but I have eaten roly-poly within the Arctic Circle, damned nearly within the Antarctic, and now under the equator, and I am of opinion that it has not its equal.'

    "'Except, perhaps, for spotted dog.'

    "'Ah, you have a point there, Stephen.'"

    --Patrick O'Brian, The Thirteen Gun Salute, 268–269

    March 5, 2008

  • Haha!

    March 5, 2008