jelly
verbEtymology Inherited from Middle English gele. Doublet of gelee.
1
To make into jelly.
2
To preserve in jelly.
3
To wiggle like jelly.
jelly
nounUS, UK /ˈd͡ʒɛli/ · AU, NZ /ˈd͡ʒeli/
Etymology Inherited from Middle English gele. Doublet of gelee.
11 senses
- 1A dessert made by boiling gelatine (or a plant-based…
- 2A clear or translucent fruit preserve, made from fruit…
- 3Clipping of jelly coconut.
- 4A savoury substance, derived from meat, that has the…
- 5Any substance or object having the consistency of the…
- 6A jellyfish.
- 7A pretty girl; a girlfriend.
- 8A large backside, especially a woman's.
- 9Alternative spelling of gelly: clipping of gelignite.
- 10A jelly shoe.
- 11Blood.
1
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.
- His mother prepared jelly for him and his friends for dessert.
- Rincewind relaxed slightly, which was to say that he still made a violin string look like a bowl of jelly.1983, Terry Pratchett, The Colour of Magic, published 2022, page 127:
2
Canada, US A clear or translucent fruit preserve, made from fruit juice and set using either naturally occurring, or added, pectin.
- 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.1945, Fannie Merritt Farmer and Wilma Lord Perkins (revisor), The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, Eighth edition
- 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.1975, Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker, The Joy of Cooking, 5th revision
4
A savoury substance, derived from meat, that has the same texture as the dessert.
5
Any substance or object having the consistency of the dessert or preserve.
- calf's-foot jelly
- Sam floored him perpetually, and beat his face to a jelly, without getting a scratch.1821, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume 8, page 67:
1 more example
- […] 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.1900 December – 1901 August, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “chapter 24”, in The First Men in the Moon, London: George Newnes, […], published 1901, →OCLC:
- 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.2014, Theo Tait, ‘Water-Borne Zombies’, London Review of Books, volume 36, number 5:
- ‘Gowan goes to Oxford a lot,’ the boy said. ‘He′s got a jelly there.’1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage, published 1993, page 25:
- I shake my jelly at every chance / When I whip with my hips you slip into a trance2001, “Bootylicious”, in Survivor, performed by Destiny's Child:
- At that Sister Samantha seemed to shake her jelly so that she sank back into her chair.2001, George Dell, Dance Unto the Lord, page 94:
9
Alternative, Colloquial Alternative spelling of gelly: clipping of gelignite.
10
Colloquial A jelly shoe.
- Mary Alice gazed at a picture of herself wearing jellies and an oversized turquoise T-shirt that matched her eyes […]2006, David L. Marcus, What It Takes to Pull Me Through:
11
US, Colloquial Blood.
- Derived terms
74 terms
astral jelly, blood jelly, bloodybelly comb jelly, box jelly, bread jelly, coconut jelly, comb jelly, combjelly, comb-jelly, crystal jelly, giant phantom jelly, golden jelly fungus, grape jelly, grass jelly, hair jelly, hedgerow jelly, jellification, jelliform, jellify, jellium, jelloid, jelly baby, jellybag, jelly bean, jelly belly, jelly blubber, jelly bracelet, jellybrain, jelly cake, jellycoat, jelly-coconut, jellycopter, jelly donut, jelly doughnut, jelly ear, jelly fish, jellyfish, jelly-fish, jelly fungus, jelly glass, jellygraph, jellyish, jelly leaf, jellylike, jelly of Wharton, jelly palm, jelly plant, jelly powder, jelly roll, jelly roll pan, jelly shot, jelly tooth, jellyvore, jellyvorous, meat jelly, mint jelly, moon jelly, nail jelly to a wall, peachy keen jelly bean, peanut butter and jelly, peanut-butter-and-jelly, pepper jelly, petroleum jelly, redcurrant jelly, royal jelly, saucer jelly, screaming jelly babies, sea jelly, star jelly, toothed jelly fungus, toothed jelly mushroom, vegetable jelly, vitreous jelly, Wharton's jelly