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From c 1550 to c 1675 silly was very extensively used in senses 1-3, and in a number of examples it is difficult to decide which shade of meaning was intended by the writer.
A. adj.
1. a. Deserving of pity, compassion, or sympathy. Now north. and Sc. Cf. POOR a. 6.
c1425 Seven Sages (Percy Soc.) 1361 The sylyman lay and herde, And hys wyf answerd. c1489 CAXTON Blanchardyn liv. 213 With these or the like exclaimes, this silly aged King..lay still a while. 1513 DOUGLAS Æneid I. vi. 69 Ane husband, quhilk Sicheus hecht, had sche,..And stranglie luvit of the silly Dido. 1556 in W. H. Turner Select Rec. Oxford 246 The fire raging upon the silly Carcase. 1641 J. JACKSON True Evang. Temper III. 187 What is poore, and silly man alone, but a very scrich-owle, and satyre. 1680 OTWAY Orphan II. v. 685, I might have trusted him with all the secret, Open'd my silly heart, and shewn it bare. 1724 RAMSAY Tea-t. Misc. (1733) I. 84 Good wife, for your courtesie, Will ye lodge a silly poor man? 1764 REID Inquiry i. §6. 103 Is this thy pastime, O Nature, to put such tricks upon a silly creature? 1808 JAMIESON, Silly..in the same sense as E. poor is often used, denoting a state which excites compassion. 1894 HESLOP Northumbld. Gloss. s.v., The bit bairn's asleep noo, silly thing.
b. Helpless, defenceless; esp. of women and children. Obs.
1587 TURBERV. Trag. Tales (1837) 31 Making him repine, To see a sillie dame so sore distreste. 1591 SHAKES. Two Gent. IV. i. 72 Prouided that you do no outrages On silly women, or poore passengers. 1610 J. GUILLIM Heraldry III. xxvi. (1660) 260 Not unlike those devillish Witches, that do work the destruction of Silly Infants. 1647 CLARENDON Hist. Reb. VII. §171 Who behaved themselves with such inhumanity, that they Charged among the silly Women. 1665 MANLEY Grotius' Low-C. Wars 938 There remained fresh Examples of their Barbarism against weak Sea-men, and silly Fisher-men.
absol. c1580 SIDNEY Ps. x. 7 Lift up Thy heavnly hand, And by the sylly stand.
c. Of animals, esp. as a conventional (poetic) epithet of sheep.
1500-20 DUNBAR Poems xxxii. 59 In the silly lambis skin, He crap als far as he micht win. 1564-78 W. BULLEIN Dial. agst. Pest. (1888) 63 The poor cillie Mouse crept out of her small caue.., thinkyng no harme. 1577-82 BRETON Toyes Idle Head Wks. (Grosart) I. 38/2 This Lady..To hunt this silly harmlesse Harte dooth take a great delight. 1620-6 QUARLES Feast for Wormes Introd. 46 The Woolfe shall fawne vpon the silly Sheepe. 1646 Judgem. & Mercy Wks. (Grosart) I. 120/1 The silly Sheep reposed in their warm fleeces. 1780 COWPER Progr. Error 119 His silly sheep, what wonder if they stray? 1866 M. ARNOLD Thyrsis v, He could not keep..Here with the shepherds and the silly sheep.
2. Weak, feeble, frail; insignificant, trifling: a. Of persons or animals. Obs.
1567 J. MAPLET Gr. Forest 71b, Here we see that a smal sillie Bird knoweth how to match with so great a Beast. 1577 St. Augustine's Man. Tviijb, Why raungest thou then through so many thynges O sillie man? 1611 SPEED Hist. Gt. Brit. IX. iii. (1632) 465 A Colliers Cart..drawn with one silly leane Beast. 1633 HERBERT Temple, Sighs & Grones i, Thou onely art The mightie God, but I a sillie worm. 1665 SIR T. HERBERT Trav. (1677) 339 They are..so innocent as not to take away the life of the silliest vermin.
b. Of inanimate things. Now Sc.
1587 GOLDING De Mornay xxxii. (1617) 558 He [Christ] leaueth neither children nor kinsfolk behind him to vphold his silly kingdome. 1598 BP. HALL Sat. V. i. 59 Of one bayes breadth, God wot, a silly cote. 1621 BURTON Anat. Mel. II. iii. III. (1651) 329 When as the lofty oke is blown down, the silly reed may stand. 1660 F. BROOKE tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 144 Many times 'tis but a scarf or silly taffeta ribbon. 1794 G. ADAMS Nat. & Exp. Philos. I. xi. 35 By dissection you discover this Worker of Miracles to be nothing but a poor silly contemptible Knob or Protuberency. 1889 BARRIE Window in Thrums 209, I was sawin'.., an' little Rob was haudin' the booards, for they were silly but things.
c. Weakly, feeble, sickly, ailing. Sc. and north.
a1585 MONTGOMERIE Cherrie & Slae 1512 To do the thing we can To pleise..This silly sickly man. 1777 Ferguson's Scot. Prov. 1 A silly bairn is eith to lear. 1818 SCOTT Hrt. Midl. xvii, Is there onything you would particularly fancy, as your health seems but silly? 1821 GALT Ann. Parish i, She was but of a silly constitution. 1889 BARRIE Window in Thrums vi. 49 There's Leeby 'at I couldna hae done withoot, me bein' sae silly.
d. Scanty, sorry, meagre, poor. Obs.
1593 SHAKES. 3 Hen. VI, III. iii. 93 A Pedigree Of three~score and two yeeres, a silly time To make prescription for a Kingdomes worth. 1613 JACKSON Creed I. 187 Where they found but silly shelter. 1767 SIR R. COLVILLE in Dossie Mem. Agric. (1768) I. 412 Marsh land, of a light, silly, hungry soil.
3. a. Unlearned, unsophisticated, simple, rustic, ignorant. Obs. or arch.
a1547 SURREY Æneid II. 392 The silly herdman all astonnied stands. 1597 HOOKER Eccl. Pol. V. lxxx. §5 To make the sillie people believe that the contrarie is maintained by the Bishops. 1632 HERBERT Priest to Temple xxi, Socrates..found Philosophy in silly Tradesmen. 1687 LOVELL tr. Thevenot's Trav. I. 2 From Hell (of which the silly people of the Country think the top of this hill to be the mouth). 1739 Better Regulation Free-Thinking 2 The glaring Absurdities of Priest-craft..daily become the Scorn and Contempt of the sillyest Part of the People. 1795 SOUTHEY Joan of Arc I. 41 If, as I believe, this is of Heaven, My silly speech doth wrong it.
b. Of humble rank or state; lowly. Obs.
a1568 A. SCOTT Poems (S.T.S.) vi. 26 So luvaris lair no leid suld lak, A lord to lufe a silly lass. 1577-87 HOLINSHED Chron. II. 96 He was shot thorough with an arrow amongst his men by a sillie footman. 1607 HIERON Wks. I. 258 Little thought shee that that silly man that sate there..was the Sauiour of the world. 1632 LITHGOW Trav. IX. 388 This Duke, before whose face the silly ones did shine, and the proud stiffe-necked oppressours did tremble. 1647 FULLER Gd. Th. in Worse T. (1841) 108 The silliest and simplest, being wronged, may justly speak in their own defence.
c. Of things: Plain, simple, rustic, homely.
1570 FOXE A. & M. (ed. 2) 926/1 Dauid had no more but a sylie slynge, and a few stones. 1587 GOLDING De Mornay Ep. Ded. p. iv, Consider how the silie netts of those Fishermen drew the pride of the world..to beleeve. 1610 J. GUILLIM Heraldry IV. v. (1660) 281 Before the invention of Printing, the onely means of preserving good Arts..was by this silly instrument the Pen. 1629 MILTON Hymn Nativ. viii, Perhaps their loves, or els their sheep, Was all that did their silly thoughts so busie keep. 1753 FOOTE Englishm. in Paris II. Wks. 1799 I. 46, I am quite enchanted with this new instrument; 'tis so languishing and so portable, and so soft and so silly. 1798 COLERIDGE Anc. Mar. V. ii, The silly buckets on the deck.., I dreamt that they were filled with dew.
4. Weak or deficient in intellect; feeble-minded, imbecile. In early use Sc.
15.. Christ's Kirk 24 in Bann. MS. 283 Fow yellow yellow wes hir heid, But scho of lufe wes sillie. 1721 WODROW Hist. Suff. Ch. Scotl. (1722) II. 318 He did not recover the Exercise of his Reason fully, but was silly, and next to an Idiot. 1814 SCOTT Wav. lxiv, Davie's no just like other folk..; but he's no sae silly as folk tak him for. 1881 GOLDW. SMITH Lect. & Ess. 193 The King's uncle, being rather weak in intellect, was called Silly Billy. 1889 H. O'REILLY 50 Yrs. on Trail 9 A girl..who was a trifle silly. She could remember nothing, and was a great trouble.
5. a. Lacking in judgement or common sense; foolish, senseless, empty-headed.
1576 FLEMING Panopl. Epist. 24 Wee sillie soules, take the matter too too heauily. 1598 FLORIO s.v. Zane, A sillie Iohn, a gull, a noddie. 1611 BIBLE 2 Tim. iii. 6 Of this sort are they which creep into houses, and leade captiue silly women. 1691 HARTCLIFFE Virtues 3 A wise and good Man..will neither be so stupid, as to be surpriz'd with any Disaster, nor so silly, as to encrease it by a fruitless Anxiety. 1728 YOUNG Love of Fame v. 212 Her soul is silly, but her body's wise. 1766 C. O'CONOR Dissert. Hist. Scotl. 64 Silly Man! The Ridicule recoils doubly on his own Head. 1833 H. MARTINEAU Fr. Wines & Pol. v. 77, I should be very silly to pay when I might have them without. 1840 DICKENS Barn. Rudge iii, ‘Heaven help this silly fellow,’ murmured the perplexed locksmith. 1889 GRETTON Memory's Harkback 312 The gentlemen often came into the drawing-room with glassy eyes, and silly of speech.
b. Of words, actions, etc.: Evincing or associated with foolishness.
1588 SHAKES. L.L.L. III. i. 77 By vertue thou inforcest laughter, thy sillie thought, my spleene. 1590 Mids. N. V. i. 212 This is the silliest stuffe that ere I heard. 1639 FULLER Holy War I. viii, His silly looks carried in them a despair of any worth. 1669 R. MONTAGU in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.) I. 461 He writes every week the silliest, foolishest stories in the world. 1764 GRAY J.T. 10 At our time of life 'twould be silly, my dear. 1780 COWPER Progr. Err. 380 With awkward gait, stretch'd neck, and silly stare. 1835 URE Philos. Manuf. p. x, The silly blunder of estimating their own intrinsic resources above those of all the world beside. 1871 R. ELLIS tr. Catullus xxxix. 16 For silly laughter, it's a silly thing indeed.
c. silly season, the months of August and September, when newspapers supply the lack of real news by articles or discussions on trivial topics; also transf. and attrib. Hence silly-seasoner, -seasoning.
1861 Sat. Rev. 13 July 37/2 We have, however, observed this year very strong symptoms of the Silly Season of 1861 setting in a month or two before its time. 1871 Punch 9 Sept. 102/2 The present time of the year has been named ‘the silly season’. 1884 Illustr. Lond. News 23 Aug. 171/1 The ‘silly season’ having begun in real earnest, the newspapers are, as a necessary consequence, full of instructive and amusing matter. 1893 Westm. Gaz. 18 Aug. 2/2 The Chronicle's suicide ‘silly-seasoner’ promises well. 1897 Ibid. 20 Aug. 7/3 Various questions of bathing..form the Telegraph's ‘silly seasoning’ this year. 1910 H. G. WELLS in Eng. Rev. Sept. 308, I got..Burkett of the Dial to try over a silly-season discussion of State Help for Mothers. 1930 Forum Dec. 375/2 The silly season was formally launched and the Big Parade began. 1952 M. TRIPP Faith is Windsock i. 20 Fat daily newspapers, silly-season follies, cries of ‘Give Chamberlain a peerage!’ after Munich. 1971 Jrnl. Gen. Psychol. Jan. 151 (heading) The psychobiological silly season or what happens when neurophysiological data become psychological theories. 1976 T. HEALD Let Sleeping Dogs Die vii. 129 The reporters were..embarrassed at having to attend such a..silly-season event.
d. Cricket. (See quot. 1897.)
1888 R. H. LYTTELTON in Steel & Lyttelton Cricket vi. 287 The English captain acceded to W. G. Grace's wish and allowed him to go forward point, or, as it is familiarly called, ‘silly’ point. 1897 Encycl. Sport I. 246 Silly Applied to point, mid-on and mid-off, when they stand dangerously near the striker. 1904 Westm. Gaz. 11 June 3/1 Strudwick..jumped from silly-point and caught it almost on the leg side of the wicket.
e. to play silly buggers (also bleeders, b-s), to fool about, to mess around. Cf. to play buggery s.v. BUGGERY c. slang.
1961 PARTRIDGE Dict. Slang Suppl. 1274/1 Silly buggers, play, to indulge in provocative horse-play; hence, to feign stupidity: low: since ca. 1920. 1968 M. WOODHOUSE Rock Baby ix. 95 If they want to play silly bleeders, let them. We're technicians. 1969 M. PUGH Last Place Left ii. 13 You know that whatever it is, it doesn't affect humans? Don't play silly bugger, Rab. 1972 J. MCCLURE Caterpillar Cop iii. 43 It was too easy..and too like what happened when the gods played silly buggers. 1972 ‘K. ROYCE’ Miniatures Frame iv. 50, I have to pin something on him to stop him playing silly b's. 1976 K. WATERHOUSE Mondays, Thursdays 45 I'm sure none of this had anything to do with the supposed threat to our privacy. It was our God-given right to play silly buggers that was threatened, and the nation responded magnificently. 1979 Guardian 9 Aug. 22/8 We don't want people jeopardising our position by playing silly bs.
f. Proverbial phr. ask a silly question (and you get a silly answer).
1969 ‘A. GILBERT’ Missing from her Home v. 73 No, don't bother to answer that. Ask a silly question and you get a silly answer. 1970 M. PEREIRA Pigeon's Blood xi. 122 ‘John? Tell me straight: do you or don't you?’ John Raze looked at his friend. ‘Ask a silly question...’ he said. Then after a pause: ‘No.’ 1974 Guardian 26 Mar. 24/6 Questionnaires..coming under the heading of ‘Ask a silly question, and you get a silly answer’ get their just deserts.
g. Comb., often with quasi-adverbial force, as silly-bold, -clever, -looking, -mad, -mild; silly-faced, -titled; silly-like adv.
1592 SHAKES. Ven. & Ad. 1151 It [love] shall be raging mad or sillie milde. 1760 R. JAMES Canine Madness 186 The reason of which was owing to his [i.e. a sheep-dog's] being what we vulgarly call silly mad. 1807 A. SEWARD Lett. (1811) VI. 388 A few extracts from the silly-titled poem Epics of the Ton. 1818 SCOTT Hrt. Midl. viii, A tall gawky silly-looking boy of fourteen or fifteen. a1825 FORBY Voc. E. Anglia 301 Silly-bold, impertinently and unbecomingly free; assuming unseemly airs. 1896 G. B. SHAW in Sat. Rev. 11 July 36/2 Greene was really amusing, Marston spirited and silly-clever. 1903 LD. R. GOWER Rec. & Rem. 258 Silly-faced Charles X in the same apparel. 1946 ‘G. ORWELL’ in Polemic Sept.-Oct. 8 Innumerable silly-clever Conservatives..like Sir Alan Herbert, Professor G. M. Young, Lord Elton. 1963 Economist 11 May 538/1 Mr Khrushchev's silly-clever forward pass in Cuba.
6. Stunned, stupefied, dazed, as by a blow.
1886 COLE S.W. Linc. Gloss. s.v., It made me quiet silly for a time. 1889 RIDER HAGGARD King Solomon's Mines 217, I charged with them, and got knocked silly for my pains. 1892 BESANT Ivory Gate II. i. 9 We're knocked a bit silly just at first.
7. Special collocations: silly ***, a foolish or stupid person (cf. *** n.1 2); spec. an amiable upper-class idiot; freq. attrib.; silly billy, a foolish or feeble-minded person; used spec. as a nickname of William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester (1776-1834), and of William IV (1765-1837); silly house slang, a mental hospital (cf. funny farm s.v. FUNNY a. 4); sillypop slang, a foolish or light-headed woman (cf. POP n.2); also attrib. (obs.); Silly Putty orig. U.S., the proprietary name of an elastic putty-like substance with the remarkable properties of stretching, shattering, and bouncing sharply when appropriately handled, sold chiefly as a plaything; also fig. and with lower-case initials; Silly Symphony, any of a series of animated cartoons (see quot. 1976) designed by the American cartoonist Walter Elias (‘Walt’) Disney (1901-66).
1901 G. B. SHAW Captain Brassbound's Conversion III. 290 You silly ***, you. 1905 Punch 22 Mar. 214/2 He inquired if Phyllis ‘had done the Academy yet’? Which, as it didn't open for some days, was a silly-*** thing to say. 1945 ‘G. ORWELL’ in Windmill No. 2. 18 The silly-*** Englishman with his spats and his monocle. 1973 [see KNUT]. 1978 R. V. JONES Most Secret War vii. 60 In the best manner of the silly-*** Englishman he blundered into one door after another in an apparent search for the lavatory.
1834 J. ROMILLY Diary 13 Apr. (1967) 55 He was in a towering passion for a minute but soon got into a good humour by laughing at the D. of Gloster. ‘Did you see silly Billy squirted on last night? it was worth 5£.’ 1872 B. JERROLD London xv. 124 The silly-Billy of the neighbourhood on whom the neighbourhood is merciless. 1908 L. H. DAWSON Nicknames & Pseudonyms 269 Silly Billy, a nickname of William Frederick (1776-1834), Duke of Gloucester; also of William IV (1765-1837). 1934 R. NICHOLS Fisbo 48 Come, come, don't be a silly-billy. 1958 N. MARSH Singing in Shrouds 173 You'll think me a frightful silly-billy. 1969 A. CHRISTIE Hallowe'en Party xvi. 173 The King what had a head like a pear was on the throne Silly Billy, wasn't it, William IVth. 1977 in Lewis & Baker Wordpower II. VI. 15 Mr Healey is a Silly Billy to have waited so long before doing so little of what everyone knew was necessary.
1969 K. GILES Death cracks Bottle x. 116 They used to allow me my News of the World in the silly house.
1894 BEERBOHM Defence of Cosmetics in Yellow Bk. Apr. 70 She is the veriest little sillypop. 1895 Punch 18 May 230/3 On styge or on cinder-path, sillypop things As want to play Man and be Woman are trying to fly without wings.
1950 New Yorker 26 Aug. 20 After absorbing the elementary facts about Silly Putty..we sought out Mr. Lee Weber, the manager of the bookshop... He told us that Silly Putty is the most terrific item the Doubleday shops have been privileged to handle since ‘Forever Amber’. 1952 Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 341 Peter Hodgson, New Haven, Conn... Silly Putty... For the Plastic Known as Organo Silicone Designed and Sold for Use as a Modeling Clay and Amusement..by Children. Claims used since July 1949. 1954 ‘E. BOX’ Death in Fifth Position v. 111 Silly putty is a pink substance which, if rolled in a ball, will bounce better than rubber, which will shatter if you hit it with a hammer and which will stretch to an unbelievable length. 1963 Punch 2 Oct. 495/1 What children today call ‘silly putty’, which can be pinched and stretched into any shape or length, like toffee. 1964 Trade Marks Jrnl. 19 Aug. 1364/2 Silly Putty... Play~things made of mouldable plastics. Peter Hodgson,..New Haven, State of Connecticut, United States of America; manufacturer. 1974 P. DE VRIES Glory of Hummingbird (1975) v. 79 It's only your hands I'm putty in... Silly putty I'm afraid.
1929 Exhibitors Herald World 16 Nov. 53/3 Booked into the Tivoli at Toronto for a week's run, ‘The Skeleton Dance’, one of the Disney Silly Symphonies which are being released by Columbia Pictures, has already made three weeks there. 1936 G. GREENE Journey without Maps I. iii. 67 Natives..looked like grasshoppers in a Silly Symphony. 1976 Oxf. Compan. Film 22/1 He [sc. Disney] pioneered the precise integration of the animated image with sound particularly music in the Silly Symphony series which began in 1928.
B. n. A silly or foolish person. colloq.
1858 K. H. DIGBY Children's Bower I. 68 While your regular critics, like great sillies, are mistaking jewels or fruits for dirt. 1889 W. S. GILBERT Gondoliers II, She is what is called a silly. 1896 Punch 14 Mar. 124 You are not to be a silly.
C. adv. = SILLILY adv. 2. Now dial. or colloq.
1704 CIBBER Careless Husband I. i, If you did but see how silly a man fumbles for an excuse, when he is a little ashamed of being in love. a1774 GOLDSM. tr. Scarron's Com. Romance (1775) II. 268, I certainly behaved very silly, and she had a right to be angry with me. 1881 W. B. EVANS Leicestersh. Gloss. s.v., How can you talk so silly?
ADDITIONS SERIES 1993
silly, a., n., and adv.
Add: [A.] [6.] In predicative use. b. to drink (oneself) silly: i.e. to intoxication (cf. DRINK v.1 12 a). Similarly, to bore, scare, etc. (oneself or another) silly: i.e. thoroughly, to an excessive degree. colloq.
1907 J. M. SYNGE Playboy of Western World III. 64 Drinking myself silly, and parlatic from the dusk to dawn. 1934 G. B. SHAW Too True to be Good Pref. 5 We are all amazed..when we hear of the multimillionaire passing the public house without going in and drinking himself silly. 1965 J. BETJEMAN in London Mag. 3 June 57 Where we can warm and hug each other silly. 1975 Country Life 25 Dec. 1798/1 Many ornamental trees and shrubs..had flowered themselves silly in 1974. 1989 Marketing 25 May 16/2 He says owners can now stuff dogs silly without ruining their digestions.
Chiefly dial.
1. trans. a. refl. To render (oneself) foolish.
1866 W. GREGOR Banffsh. Gloss.
b. To render silly; to stupefy, stun.
1859 Sessions Papers Central Criminal Court 10 May 17, I felt great pain from the blows... It half sillied me at the time. 1886 COLE S.W. Linc. Gloss. s.v., It didn't kill it, it only sillied it a bit.
2. intr. To act foolishly; to fool about.
1877 E. PEACOCK N.W. Linc. Gloss., Sillying about, acting foolishly. 1891 KIPLING Naulahka vi, When a man sillies about like that, promising to meet a man..and not showing up.