to jolly along - Glite Dictionary

Examples

Sometimes it's necessary to jolly along reluctant students during a difficult lesson.
He managed to jolly along his colleagues with his infectious humor.
She always jollies along my friends when they are feeling down.
Don't worry! Just jolly along and enjoy the day!
He managed to jolly along his colleagues with his infectious humor.
She did her best to jolly along the team after their defeat.
Sometimes it's necessary to jolly along reluctant students during a difficult lesson.

Synonyms

to cheer

vsto jolly along

392 1.0

To make someone feel happier

adds deliberate encouragement and support rather than mere mood lifting

to cheer up

vsto jolly along

Informal

234 1.4

To feel happier after being sad or to make someone feel happier

often aims to encourage generally through steady supportive actions rather than only as response

to lift one's spirits

vsto jolly along

8 3.9

To make someone feel happier

focuses more on steady encouragement and supportive warmth

to jolly

vsto jolly along

Informal

1 7.0

To act in a playful way to make someone laugh

focuses more on supportive encouragement rather than playful teasing or mere amusement

to lift someone's spirits

vsto jolly along

1 3.9

To make someone feel happier when they are sad

is used more generally to encourage with cheerful support not only after sadness

to buoy up

vsto jolly along

5.3

To make someone feel more cheerful and confident

is more about ongoing encouragement through warm support than only mood boosts

to jolly up

vsto jolly along

UK

8.2

To try to make someone feel happier when they are sad

emphasizes encouragement and steady support rather than mere trying or play

Antonyms

to discourage

257 3.5

To try to stop something by making people less willing to do it

to dissuade

35 6.0

To try to stop someone from doing something by talking to them

How Cheerful

to cheer up

Informal

234 1.4

to jolly along

UK

8.4

to perk up

Informal

16 3.1

to cheer

356 1.0

to encourage

∞ 2.3

Surface Forms

jolly along infinitive

jollied along past

jollied along past participle

jollying along present participle

jollies along third person singular

Morphology

jolly + along

The overall sense of cheering or supporting is partly recoverable from 'jolly' (cheerful) and 'along' (together/with), so a learner could infer a general upward/encouraging action. However, the verb use of 'jolly' and the specific pragmatic sense 'encourage/help someone feel happier' are not fully predictable from the constituents alone and would likely require exposure to the collocation.

Etymology

The phrasal verb jolly along comes from the image of someone cheerfully walking with another person to keep them going. The word jolly means happy and along shows moving with someone, so the phrase came to mean 'encourage' or 'help someone feel happier'.