"doolally" meaning in English

See doolally in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

IPA: /duːˈlæli/ [Received-Pronunciation], /duˈlæli/ [General-American] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-doolally.wav [Southern-England] Forms: more doolally [comparative], most doolally [superlative]
Rhymes: -æli Etymology: From doolally tap (“camp fever; (by extension) eccentricity; madness”), with doolally interpreted as an adjective. Doolally is derived from the Deolali transit camp, a former British army camp about 100 miles (160 kilometres) northeast of Bombay, India, used as a transit station for soldiers awaiting transport back to Britain; while tap (“Indian malarial fever”) is from Persian or Urdu تب (tab, “malarial fever”), ultimately from Sanskrit ताप (tāpa, “fever; heat; pain, torment”). Etymology templates: {{m|en|doolally tap|t=camp fever; (by extension) eccentricity; madness}} doolally tap (“camp fever; (by extension) eccentricity; madness”), {{glossary|adjective}} adjective, {{m|en||Doolally}} Doolally, {{m|en|tap|t=Indian malarial fever}} tap (“Indian malarial fever”), {{noncog|fa|-}} Persian, {{noncog|ur|تب|t=malarial fever|tr=tab}} Urdu تب (tab, “malarial fever”), {{noncog|sa|ताप|t=fever; heat; pain, torment}} Sanskrit ताप (tāpa, “fever; heat; pain, torment”), {{sup|4}} ⁴ Head templates: {{en-adj}} doolally (comparative more doolally, superlative most doolally)
  1. (originally military slang) Eccentric; insane, mad. Tags: UK, slang Synonyms: doolally tap [dated], insane
    Sense id: en-doolally-en-adj-izPXei70 Categories (other): British English, English entries with language name categories using raw markup Disambiguation of British English: 64 36 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 46 54
  2. (by extension) Carried away by enjoyment, excitement, etc. Tags: UK, broadly, slang Translations (carried away by enjoyment, excitement, etc.): ဟွံပေင်ဒကေဝ် (Mon)
    Sense id: en-doolally-en-adj-je9t9aiW Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 43 57 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 46 54 Disambiguation of 'carried away by enjoyment, excitement, etc.': 1 99

Download JSON data for doolally meaning in English (8.0kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "doolally tap",
        "t": "camp fever; (by extension) eccentricity; madness"
      },
      "expansion": "doolally tap (“camp fever; (by extension) eccentricity; madness”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "adjective"
      },
      "expansion": "adjective",
      "name": "glossary"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "",
        "3": "Doolally"
      },
      "expansion": "Doolally",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "tap",
        "t": "Indian malarial fever"
      },
      "expansion": "tap (“Indian malarial fever”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "fa",
        "2": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "Persian",
      "name": "noncog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ur",
        "2": "تب",
        "t": "malarial fever",
        "tr": "tab"
      },
      "expansion": "Urdu تب (tab, “malarial fever”)",
      "name": "noncog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "sa",
        "2": "ताप",
        "t": "fever; heat; pain, torment"
      },
      "expansion": "Sanskrit ताप (tāpa, “fever; heat; pain, torment”)",
      "name": "noncog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "4"
      },
      "expansion": "⁴",
      "name": "sup"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From doolally tap (“camp fever; (by extension) eccentricity; madness”), with doolally interpreted as an adjective. Doolally is derived from the Deolali transit camp, a former British army camp about 100 miles (160 kilometres) northeast of Bombay, India, used as a transit station for soldiers awaiting transport back to Britain; while tap (“Indian malarial fever”) is from Persian or Urdu تب (tab, “malarial fever”), ultimately from Sanskrit ताप (tāpa, “fever; heat; pain, torment”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more doolally",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most doolally",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "doolally (comparative more doolally, superlative most doolally)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "doo‧lal‧ly"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "64 36",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "46 54",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "[1920, Richard King [pseudonym; Richard King Huskinson], “How I Came to Make ‘History’!”, in Over the Fireside with Silent Friends, London: John Lane, The Bodley Head; New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, published 1921, →OCLC, page 149",
          "text": "\"Will you write me an Essay on Corsets?\" / \"On what?\" I asked incredulously—knowing that he had been a distinguished soldier, and suspecting that he had suddenly developed what the soldiers describe as \"a touch of the doolally.\"]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1932, James Lansdale Hodson, chapter II, in North Wind, London: Faber and Faber […], →OCLC, page 26",
          "text": "\"When you've got any God's amount of brains,\" said Frobisher, \"you can pretend to be doolally;[…]\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1965, New English Dramatists (Penguin Plays), number 8, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, →OCLC, page 40",
          "text": "Doolally tap. It's the strain see – and it gets the doolally lads first.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1973, Maureen Duffy, chapter II, in I Want to Go to Moscow: A Lay, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 61",
          "text": "They were all doolally of course, except Philomela.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1993, Blake Morrison, “Foetal”, in And When Did You Last See Your Father?, London: Granta Books in association with Penguin Books, published 1994, page 66",
          "text": "[H]e took three sleeping-pills in the night, so he says, and he's all doped and doolally now. I need your help to move him.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Patrick Gale, “Blue House”, in Rough Music, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published May 2001, page 54",
          "text": "\"Now you're being silly. Promise you'll put me in a home when I get really doolally.\" / \"If you're really doolally you won't know if I have or not.\" / \"So promise.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Helen Cross, “Amir”, in Spilt Milk, Black Coffee, London, Berlin: Bloomsbury Publishing, published 2010, page 212",
          "text": "The cat scrap at the bridal bash only made him more doolally.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 September 10, Simon Beaufoy, 38:50 from the start, in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, spoken by Dr. Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor)",
          "text": "But then, doolally as this enterprise clearly is, I've had the most pleasant day I can remember having in a long time.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Eccentric; insane, mad."
      ],
      "id": "en-doolally-en-adj-izPXei70",
      "links": [
        [
          "military",
          "military"
        ],
        [
          "slang",
          "slang"
        ],
        [
          "Eccentric",
          "eccentric#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "insane",
          "insane"
        ],
        [
          "mad",
          "mad#Adjective"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(originally military slang) Eccentric; insane, mad."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "dated"
          ],
          "word": "doolally tap"
        },
        {
          "word": "insane"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "43 57",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "46 54",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1999 May 13, Bill Brewster, Frank Broughton, quoting Pete Tong, “Pete Tong: Essential Selector: Interviewed by Bill and Frank in London, May 13, 1999”, in The Record Players: The Story of Dance Music Told by History’s Greatest DJs, London: Virgin Books, published 2012, page 424",
          "text": "You are there to entertain. Education is something we like doing. That's not actually the biggest thing on the night, when people are queuing to get in and paying their money. They want to go doolally to their favourite records.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016, M. G. Leonard [pseudonym; Maya Gabrielle], “The Entomology Vaults”, in Beetle Boy, Frome, Somerset: Chicken House, page 49",
          "text": "'I've never had a pet before,' Darkus gazed happily at Baxter [a beetle]. 'Thank you.' / 'That's all right, lad.' Uncle Max threw his hands up in defeat. 'I can hardly say no, when I know Barty would say yes.' / Darkus looked up, surprised. 'He would?' / 'Of course! A handsome hexapod like this? He'd be doolally about it!'",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021, Kaz Cooke, “Sit Down & Shoosh”, in You’re Doing It Wrong: A History of Bad & Bonkers Advice to Women, [Hawthorn, Vic.]: Viking, page 35",
          "text": "Australia went doolally for the visit: the Queen [Elizabeth II] waved away flies in 57 towns over 58 days; inspected an endless row of sheeps' arses in Wagga; ate Australia-shaped sandwiches with Vegemite borders at a reception in Rockhampton; and said hello to a bedridden woman in Hobart who was trundled four miles for the meeting.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Carried away by enjoyment, excitement, etc."
      ],
      "id": "en-doolally-en-adj-je9t9aiW",
      "links": [
        [
          "Carried away",
          "carry away"
        ],
        [
          "enjoyment",
          "enjoyment"
        ],
        [
          "excitement",
          "excitement"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension) Carried away by enjoyment, excitement, etc."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "broadly",
        "slang"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "1 99",
          "code": "mnw",
          "lang": "Mon",
          "sense": "carried away by enjoyment, excitement, etc.",
          "word": "ဟွံပေင်ဒကေဝ်"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/duːˈlæli/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/duˈlæli/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-æli"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-doolally.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/67/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-doolally.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-doolally.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/67/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-doolally.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-doolally.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Deolali transit camp"
  ],
  "word": "doolally"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "British English",
    "English 3-syllable words",
    "English adjectives",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English slang",
    "English terms derived from toponyms",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "Rhymes:English/æli",
    "Rhymes:English/æli/3 syllables"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "doolally tap",
        "t": "camp fever; (by extension) eccentricity; madness"
      },
      "expansion": "doolally tap (“camp fever; (by extension) eccentricity; madness”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "adjective"
      },
      "expansion": "adjective",
      "name": "glossary"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "",
        "3": "Doolally"
      },
      "expansion": "Doolally",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "tap",
        "t": "Indian malarial fever"
      },
      "expansion": "tap (“Indian malarial fever”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "fa",
        "2": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "Persian",
      "name": "noncog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ur",
        "2": "تب",
        "t": "malarial fever",
        "tr": "tab"
      },
      "expansion": "Urdu تب (tab, “malarial fever”)",
      "name": "noncog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "sa",
        "2": "ताप",
        "t": "fever; heat; pain, torment"
      },
      "expansion": "Sanskrit ताप (tāpa, “fever; heat; pain, torment”)",
      "name": "noncog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "4"
      },
      "expansion": "⁴",
      "name": "sup"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From doolally tap (“camp fever; (by extension) eccentricity; madness”), with doolally interpreted as an adjective. Doolally is derived from the Deolali transit camp, a former British army camp about 100 miles (160 kilometres) northeast of Bombay, India, used as a transit station for soldiers awaiting transport back to Britain; while tap (“Indian malarial fever”) is from Persian or Urdu تب (tab, “malarial fever”), ultimately from Sanskrit ताप (tāpa, “fever; heat; pain, torment”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more doolally",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most doolally",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "doolally (comparative more doolally, superlative most doolally)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "doo‧lal‧ly"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English military slang",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "[1920, Richard King [pseudonym; Richard King Huskinson], “How I Came to Make ‘History’!”, in Over the Fireside with Silent Friends, London: John Lane, The Bodley Head; New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, published 1921, →OCLC, page 149",
          "text": "\"Will you write me an Essay on Corsets?\" / \"On what?\" I asked incredulously—knowing that he had been a distinguished soldier, and suspecting that he had suddenly developed what the soldiers describe as \"a touch of the doolally.\"]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1932, James Lansdale Hodson, chapter II, in North Wind, London: Faber and Faber […], →OCLC, page 26",
          "text": "\"When you've got any God's amount of brains,\" said Frobisher, \"you can pretend to be doolally;[…]\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1965, New English Dramatists (Penguin Plays), number 8, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, →OCLC, page 40",
          "text": "Doolally tap. It's the strain see – and it gets the doolally lads first.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1973, Maureen Duffy, chapter II, in I Want to Go to Moscow: A Lay, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 61",
          "text": "They were all doolally of course, except Philomela.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1993, Blake Morrison, “Foetal”, in And When Did You Last See Your Father?, London: Granta Books in association with Penguin Books, published 1994, page 66",
          "text": "[H]e took three sleeping-pills in the night, so he says, and he's all doped and doolally now. I need your help to move him.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Patrick Gale, “Blue House”, in Rough Music, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published May 2001, page 54",
          "text": "\"Now you're being silly. Promise you'll put me in a home when I get really doolally.\" / \"If you're really doolally you won't know if I have or not.\" / \"So promise.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Helen Cross, “Amir”, in Spilt Milk, Black Coffee, London, Berlin: Bloomsbury Publishing, published 2010, page 212",
          "text": "The cat scrap at the bridal bash only made him more doolally.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011 September 10, Simon Beaufoy, 38:50 from the start, in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, spoken by Dr. Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor)",
          "text": "But then, doolally as this enterprise clearly is, I've had the most pleasant day I can remember having in a long time.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Eccentric; insane, mad."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "military",
          "military"
        ],
        [
          "slang",
          "slang"
        ],
        [
          "Eccentric",
          "eccentric#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "insane",
          "insane"
        ],
        [
          "mad",
          "mad#Adjective"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(originally military slang) Eccentric; insane, mad."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "dated"
          ],
          "word": "doolally tap"
        },
        {
          "word": "insane"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1999 May 13, Bill Brewster, Frank Broughton, quoting Pete Tong, “Pete Tong: Essential Selector: Interviewed by Bill and Frank in London, May 13, 1999”, in The Record Players: The Story of Dance Music Told by History’s Greatest DJs, London: Virgin Books, published 2012, page 424",
          "text": "You are there to entertain. Education is something we like doing. That's not actually the biggest thing on the night, when people are queuing to get in and paying their money. They want to go doolally to their favourite records.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016, M. G. Leonard [pseudonym; Maya Gabrielle], “The Entomology Vaults”, in Beetle Boy, Frome, Somerset: Chicken House, page 49",
          "text": "'I've never had a pet before,' Darkus gazed happily at Baxter [a beetle]. 'Thank you.' / 'That's all right, lad.' Uncle Max threw his hands up in defeat. 'I can hardly say no, when I know Barty would say yes.' / Darkus looked up, surprised. 'He would?' / 'Of course! A handsome hexapod like this? He'd be doolally about it!'",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021, Kaz Cooke, “Sit Down & Shoosh”, in You’re Doing It Wrong: A History of Bad & Bonkers Advice to Women, [Hawthorn, Vic.]: Viking, page 35",
          "text": "Australia went doolally for the visit: the Queen [Elizabeth II] waved away flies in 57 towns over 58 days; inspected an endless row of sheeps' arses in Wagga; ate Australia-shaped sandwiches with Vegemite borders at a reception in Rockhampton; and said hello to a bedridden woman in Hobart who was trundled four miles for the meeting.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Carried away by enjoyment, excitement, etc."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Carried away",
          "carry away"
        ],
        [
          "enjoyment",
          "enjoyment"
        ],
        [
          "excitement",
          "excitement"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension) Carried away by enjoyment, excitement, etc."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "broadly",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/duːˈlæli/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/duˈlæli/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-æli"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-doolally.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/67/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-doolally.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-doolally.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/67/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-doolally.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-doolally.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "mnw",
      "lang": "Mon",
      "sense": "carried away by enjoyment, excitement, etc.",
      "word": "ဟွံပေင်ဒကေဝ်"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Deolali transit camp"
  ],
  "word": "doolally"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-10 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (a644e18 and edd475d). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.