droll
Americanadjective
noun
verb (used without object)
adjective
Related Words
See amusing.
Other Word Forms
- drollness noun
- drolly adverb
Etymology
Origin of droll
First recorded in 1615–25; from Middle French drolle “pleasant rascal,” perhaps from Middle Dutch drol “elf, goblin, fat little man,” ultimately from Old Norse; cf. troll 2 ( def. )
Explanation
Need a mental picture for the word droll? Think of one of those cute-homely troll dolls — blend those two words together — "doll" and "troll" — and you get droll, a description of a figure that is adorably strange and whimsically cute. The word droll comes from the archaic French word drolle, referring to a jolly good fellow. The French word comes perhaps from the Middle Dutch drolle, or "imp." The word came into English as both noun ("funny person, buffoon") and adjective ("funny, quaint, strange") in the 17th century.
Vocabulary lists containing droll
The Awakening
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Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But they also find droll humor in the artifices and absurdities that some see in the genre.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 21, 2026
The actors relish the pesky, droll, frequently adorable, sometimes incendiary individuality of their roles.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 11, 2026
But no matter—a tail has been added by the sixth page, our first introduction to Ms. Shaloshvili’s droll sensibility.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 23, 2026
As a filmmaker, Victor is particularly skilled at doling out warmth, dotted with almost shockingly droll lines of dialogue along the way.
From Salon • Jul. 28, 2025
"Yes, rich, that's the very word I was searching for, the very word. You have a gift for words, Lord Tyrion, if I might say so. And you tell a droll tale. Droll, yes."
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
