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# golly

«golly» in Mova's school dictionary: **an exclamation of surprise, delight or shock, used…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

exclamation (golly!; also «golly gosh», «good golly»)

### meaning for a pupil

1) (mild, old-fashioned) an exclamation of surprise, delight or shock, used instead of swearing or saying God. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/golly/#m1)

2) (childish or humorous) used for fun to sound innocent. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/golly/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

A gentle stand-in for «God», now old-fashioned and often funny; used by grandparents, in children's books and cartoons. UK and US.

### examples

- Golly, that's a big cake! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/golly/#x1)
- Golly, I didn't know you could juggle. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/golly/#x2)
- "Good golly!" said the old professor. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/golly/#x3)
- Golly gosh, look at the time! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/golly/#x4)
- The children in the old adventure book keep saying "golly". [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/golly/#x5)
- Golly, it's cold this morning. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/golly/#x6)
- "Golly, thanks!" said the little boy. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/golly/#x7)
- People say "golly" when they're surprised but don't want to swear. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/golly/#x8)

### note

Trap: it is not rude at all; it just sounds old-fashioned. Plain meaning: «wow!»

### In the corpora

- ["Golly" is an old-fashioned mild word used instead of "God".](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/15/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «golly» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/G/golly/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.