jell
Americanverb (used without object)
-
to congeal; become jellylike in consistency.
-
to become clear, substantial, or definite; crystallize.
The plan began to jell once we all met to discuss it.
verb (used with object)
verb
-
to make or become gelatinous; congeal
-
(intr) to assume definite form
his ideas have jelled
noun
Other Word Forms
- half-jelled adjective
- unjelled adjective
Etymology
Origin of jell
First recorded in 1820–30; back formation from jelly
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.
A couple of tracks don’t quite jell with the concept, as if they were written for another project and then modified to fit here.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 17, 2026
“We’re starting to jell at the right time,” Delus said.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 21, 2025
Perhaps that ranking doesn’t jell with the fact that Wagner is slated to make $5.5 million this season — a pittance compared with salaries of the top linebackers in the league.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 6, 2023
Queer identities had barely begun to jell in Leyendecker’s era; his images helped a nascent gay culture imagine itself folded into the American power structure, however remote that reality might still have been.
From New York Times • Jun. 29, 2023
Extracts of the hemocytes can be made to jell by adding extremely small amounts of endotoxin.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
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.
