• Jelly

    Pronunciation

    • UK IPA: /ˈdÊ’É›l.i/
    • Rhymes: -É›li

    Origin 1

    Alternative forms

    Old French gelee, from geler ("to congeal"), from Latin gelū.

    Full definition of jelly

    Noun

    jelly

    (countable and uncountable; plural jellys)
    1. (New Zealand, Australia, British) A dessert made by boiling gelatine, sugar and some flavouring (often derived from fruit) and allowing it to set.
    2. (North America) A clear or translucent fruit preserve, made from fruit juice and set using either naturally occurring, or added, pectin.
      • 1945, Fannie Merritt Farmer and Wilma Lord Perkins revisor, The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, Eighth edition: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.
      • 1975, Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker, The Joy of Cooking, 5th revision: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.
    3. A similar dish made with meat.calf's-foot jelly
    4. (zoology) Short for jellyfish
    5. (slang, now rare) A pretty girl; a girlfriend.
      • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage 1993, p. 25:‘Gowan goes to Oxford a lot,’ the boy said. ‘He′s got a jelly there.’
    6. (US, slang) A large backside, especially a woman's.
      • 2001, Destiny's Child, “Bootylicious” (song)I shake my jelly at every chance
        When I whip with my hips you slip into a trance
      • 2001, George Dell, Dance Unto the Lord, page 94:At that Sister Samantha seemed to shake her jelly so that she sank back into her chair.
    7. (colloquial) Short for gelignite
    8. (colloquial) A jelly shoe.
      • 2006, David L. Marcus, What It Takes to Pull Me Through:Mary Alice gazed at a picture of herself wearing jellies and an oversized turquoise T-shirt that matched her eyes ...

    Synonyms

    Derived terms

    Derived terms

    Verb

    1. To wiggle like jelly.
    2. To make jelly.

    Origin 2

    From jealous by shortening.

    Adjective

    jelly

    1. (slang) Jealous.
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