jolly-hockey-sticks

adjective

Wholesomely athletic and enthusiastic, in a manner stereotypically associated with traditional British public schools for girls.

Meanings

adjectivejolly-hockey-sticks (comparative more jolly-hockey-sticks, superlative most jolly-hockey-sticks)

comparative more jolly-hockey-sticks · superlative most jolly-hockey-sticks

  1. UKWholesomely athletic and enthusiastic, in a manner stereotypically associated with traditional British public schools for girls.

    Polly couldn't abide Pat Walsh's bossy, jolly hockey-sticks manner and her curious predilection for calling absolutely everyone "babe."

    2003, Caroline Upcher, Falling for Mr. Wrong
    3 more examples

    We had to march along behind one of our mistresses — they were all very jolly hockey-sticks. March to church and then a lockstep turn about the park, everyone staring at us, knowing where we were from.

    2005, Jim Christy, The redemption of Anna Dupree, page 122

    There was a brigade of horsy women with enormous arses, moustaches and jolly-hockey-sticks ideas about everything walloping about in all directions, whose skins had weathered like leather and whose breath and hands always smelled of horse saliva and dung.

    2006, Richard E. Grant, The Wah-Wah diaries: the making of a film

    Boarding-school life was a lot like Mallory Towers or St Clare's, the fictional jolly-hockey-sticks schools created by Enid Blyton. 'We would have midnight feasts, and I suppose it was a bit like the Blyton books,' recalls Susan Lawrence.

    2008, Alison Bowyer, Dawn French: The Unauthorized Biography, page 19

Origin

From a catchphrase introduced in a BBC radio comedy programme, Educating Archie (1950)http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-jol1.htm.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

jolly-hockey-sticks. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jolly-hockey-sticks

MLA

“jolly-hockey-sticks.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jolly-hockey-sticks. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “jolly-hockey-sticks,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jolly-hockey-sticks.

Source: jolly-hockey-sticks on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.