Dolly Varden

noun

A woman's outfit, briefly fashionable in Britain and America in the late nineteenth century, with a brightly patterned, usually flowered, dress with a polonaise overskirt gathered up and draped over a separate underskirt.

Meanings

nounDolly Varden (plural Dolly Vardens)

plural Dolly Vardens

  1. A woman's outfit, briefly fashionable in Britain and America in the late nineteenth century, with a brightly patterned, usually flowered, dress with a polonaise overskirt gathered up and draped over a separate underskirt.
  2. A large hat, one side bent downwards, abundantly trimmed with flowers.
  3. abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of Dolly Varden crab.
  4. abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of Dolly Varden trout.

    Dolly Varden is the staple catch. To a point that, after two days, we find ourselves feeling guilty trying to shake them free from our fly or giving plenty of slack in the hope that another Dolly finds early freedom. […] Often the biggest challenge of hooking a big trout is avoiding Dollies.

    2017 November–December, Dean Oelschig, “Kamchatka: 61 Hours from Jo'burg”, in The Mission: The Cult of Fly Fishing, number 6, pages 54–55

Synonyms & antonyms

Origin

After a lively, coquettish character in Charles Dickens' novel Barnaby Rudge.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Dolly Varden. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Dolly%20Varden

MLA

“Dolly Varden.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Dolly%20Varden. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Dolly Varden,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Dolly%20Varden.

Source: Dolly Varden on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.