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My mother Molly had a nervous breakdown after my father Chic died, aged 50. He was a very generous man who ran a shop in Dundee giving a lot of people tick. When he died, a lot of people hadn't paid their bills, so he died with a lot of debt. After he died, my mother went doolally.
Brian Cox

Meaning of "doolally" in the English dictionary

Dictionary
DICTIONARY
section

ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD DOOLALLY

Originally military slang, from Deolali, a town near Mumbai, the location of a military sanatorium + Hindustani tap fever.
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Etymology is the study of the origin of words and their changes in structure and significance.
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PRONUNCIATION OF DOOLALLY

doolally  [duːˈlælɪ] play
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GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF DOOLALLY

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Doolally is an adjective.
The adjective is the word that accompanies the noun to determine or qualify it.

WHAT DOES DOOLALLY MEAN IN ENGLISH?

Doolally

Doolally or Dolally may refer to: ▪ Deolali, India, former site of a British Army transit camp. ▪ The Deolali transit camp itself. ▪ "Doolally", originally "doolally tap", meaning to 'lose one′s mind', derived from the boredom felt at the Deolali British Army transit camp. 'Tap' may be derived from the Sanskrit word 'tapa' meaning 'heat' or 'fever'. It is also just conceivable that it derives from the Welsh word 'twp', meaning 'stultified', 'unable to reason sensibly'. ▪ The former name of Shanks & Bigfoot, a British dance-music duo.

Definition of doolally in the English dictionary

The definition of doolally in the dictionary is out of one's mind; crazy In full: doolally tap.

WORDS THAT RHYME WITH DOOLALLY


alley
ˈælɪ
back-alley
ˈbækˌælɪ
bally
ˈbælɪ
challis
ˈʃælɪ
dally
ˈdælɪ
dilly-dally
ˌdɪlɪˈdælɪ
galley
ˈɡælɪ
Halley
ˈhælɪ
kali
ˈkælɪ
pally
ˈpælɪ
rally
ˈrælɪ
reveille
rɪˈvælɪ
sallee
ˈsælɪ
sally
ˈsælɪ
scally
ˈskælɪ
shalli
ˈʃælɪ
soapolallie
ˈsəʊpəˌlælɪ
tally
ˈtælɪ
trevally
trɪˈvælɪ
valley
ˈvælɪ

WORDS THAT BEGIN LIKE DOOLALLY

doodle
doodlebug
doodler
doofer
doofus
Doohan
doohickey
dook
dooket
dool
doolally tap
doolan
doolie
Doolittle
doom
doom palm
doom-laden
doom-monger
doomed
doomful

WORDS THAT END LIKE DOOLALLY

actually
additionally
automatically
basically
especially
eventually
finally
generally
historically
initially
literally
locally
naturally
normally
originally
really
specifically
totally
typically
usually

Synonyms and antonyms of doolally in the English dictionary of synonyms

SYNONYMS

Translation of «doolally» into 25 languages

TRANSLATOR
online translator

TRANSLATION OF DOOLALLY

Find out the translation of doolally to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.
The translations of doolally from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «doolally» in English.

Translator English - Chinese

doolally
1,325 millions of speakers

Translator English - Spanish

doolally
570 millions of speakers

English

doolally
510 millions of speakers

Translator English - Hindi

doolally
380 millions of speakers
ar

Translator English - Arabic

doolally
280 millions of speakers

Translator English - Russian

doolally
278 millions of speakers

Translator English - Portuguese

doolally
270 millions of speakers

Translator English - Bengali

doolally
260 millions of speakers

Translator English - French

Doolally
220 millions of speakers

Translator English - Malay

Secara tidak sengaja
190 millions of speakers

Translator English - German

doolally
180 millions of speakers

Translator English - Japanese

doolally
130 millions of speakers

Translator English - Korean

꼭지 돈 놈
85 millions of speakers

Translator English - Javanese

Doolally
85 millions of speakers
vi

Translator English - Vietnamese

doolally
80 millions of speakers

Translator English - Tamil

doolally
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Marathi

दंड
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Turkish

doolally
70 millions of speakers

Translator English - Italian

doolally
65 millions of speakers

Translator English - Polish

doolally
50 millions of speakers

Translator English - Ukrainian

doolally
40 millions of speakers

Translator English - Romanian

înnebunit
30 millions of speakers
el

Translator English - Greek

doolally
15 millions of speakers
af

Translator English - Afrikaans

doolally
14 millions of speakers
sv

Translator English - Swedish

doolally
10 millions of speakers
no

Translator English - Norwegian

doolally
5 millions of speakers

Trends of use of doolally

TRENDS

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «DOOLALLY»

The term «doolally» is normally little used and occupies the 124.634 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.
0
100%
FREQUENCY
Little used
42
/100
The map shown above gives the frequency of use of the term «doolally» in the different countries.
Principal search tendencies and common uses of doolally
List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «doolally».

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «DOOLALLY» OVER TIME

The graph expresses the annual evolution of the frequency of use of the word «doolally» during the past 500 years. Its implementation is based on analysing how often the term «doolally» appears in digitalised printed sources in English between the year 1500 and the present day.

Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about doolally

EXAMPLES

QUOTES WITH «DOOLALLY»

Famous quotes and sentences with the word doolally.
1
Brian Cox
My mother Molly had a nervous breakdown after my father Chic died, aged 50. He was a very generous man who ran a shop in Dundee giving a lot of people tick. When he died, a lot of people hadn't paid their bills, so he died with a lot of debt. After he died, my mother went doolally.

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «DOOLALLY»

Discover the use of doolally in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to doolally and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.
1
How to Talk Like a Local: From Cockney to Geordie, a ...
mad, crazy (London and now UK-wide) Doolally, or in full doolally tap, is one of the linguistic survivors of the old British Raj, and of the Army that backed it up. The term came from the Deolali military sanatorium in Bombay, to which mentally ill ...
Susie Dent, 2010
2
The Real McCoy: Understanding Peculiar English
'Doolally' is simply the British soldiers' way of mispronouncing a foreign name, and 'tap' is the Persian or Urdu for malarial fever (from Sanskrit tapa, heat or torment). So the whole expression might be loosely translated as 'camp fever'. By the ...
Peter Chadlington, Mark Gummer, 2005
3
20th century words
Well Trix darling at last l've been to these contagious greyhounds. doolally adj ( 1925) mad, crazy. British services' slang; first recorded in print in 1925, but noted then as 'old Army'. It is a shortened form of doolally tap: doolally is soldiers' ...
John Ayto, 2002
4
An essential medical miscellany
Have you ever wanted to know where the phrase 'going doolally' comes from? Or how Viagra works? Or what the health giving propertiesof whisky are? If so, look no further because An Essential Medical Miscellany contains it all.
Ayan Panja, 2005
5
The California Roll: A Novel
Even the dullest dull normal will eventually catch on, so after the Doolally's last scamper, I show up with another mutt, some additional stray I rescued. I suggest that the Doolally is a little more peripatetic—at that age I was all about the SAT ...
John Vorhaus, 2010
6
Floods 12: Bewitched
What happens when the King goes Doolally?
Colin Thompson, 2013
7
Stoneheart
It'll pass, or you'll go doolally for a bit.' 'I don't want to go doolally.' 'Might not be the worst thing that could happen.' George looked at the damp concrete at his feet. 'I think I went doolally a while ago. I think all this is doolally. I think someone's ...
Charlie Fletcher, 2007
8
The Words We Use: Collection 3
Juge. —. Fantasheemy. —. Doolally. I don't usually tackle questions about placenames, preferring to leave these matters to Flann O Riain to deal with in his column, but I couldn't resist a plea from Ms Anne James of Mountgarry, Swords, Co.
Diarmaid Ó Muirithe, 1999
9
Welcome to the Real World
'My father has gone completely doolally, but other than that it was all a big hoax – sorry I skipped out unnecessarily.' I'm not sure that he'll want me back anyway. I' ve hardly proved myself to be the most efficient personal assistant. I've turned ...
Carole Matthews, 2011
10
Zen City Iso
His real moniker is Doolally Dong, a twotone co-respondent bloke who resembles the American film star Peter Lorre, and the nearest he's got to art is flogging Suzy Wong postcards outside the Palace. Strictly small steps. I thumb through the ...
Jack Fielding

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «DOOLALLY»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term doolally is used in the context of the following news items.
1
Films to CATCH and Films to AVOID This Weekend.
It is not moving in any way, but it is entertainingly off-beam and doolally with an eccentricity and quirky charm that can only described as very ... «moviepilot.com, Jul 15»
2
Homosexual Advocate Wants Christian Chaplains Who Oppose …
Nobody is saying the religiously inclined cannot have whatever doolally beliefs they have chosen to have. But they cannot expect to be funded, ... «Christian News Network, Jul 15»
3
Lord, Give Us Our Daily Pint
Calling them Customer Version 2.0, Tresha Guha from Doolally, India's first microbrewery in Pune, says consumers today want world-class ... «Outlook, Jul 15»
4
Mumil: The rise of the Middle-Aged Mum in Lycra
But in the last few years, things have really gone - to use the technical term - doolally. It's hard not to argue that yoga has become a form of retail ... «Stuff.co.nz, Jul 15»
5
Ashley Davies: Scotland's botanical superstar
But as far as I can remember, we've never gone doolally over a plant. Or at least we hadn't until Amorphophallus titanum swaggered on to the ... «Scotsman, Jul 15»
6
The rise of the Mumil - middle-aged mum in Lycra
But in the last few years, things have really gone – to use the technical term – doolally. It's hard not to argue that yoga has become a form of ... «Telegraph.co.uk, Jun 15»
7
Raise a Mug of Craft Beer to Doolally, Mumbai's latest BrewPub
Let's all put our hands together and welcome Mumbai's latest brewpub, Doolally. After taking Pune by a storm with its freshly brewed artisanal ... «HungryForever, Jun 15»
8
Minions mining Aardman seam: Movie reviews
It is not up to Pixar standards, or Aardman's; it is not moving in any way, but it is entertainingly off-beam and doolally with an eccentricity and ... «Express.co.uk, Jun 15»
9
Foxhillfarm win Limousin Championship and Reserve at 2015 Royal …
Taking the Supreme title was Hugh Dunlop, Holehouse Farm, Ochiltree, Cumnock, Ayrshire with his heifer champion Doolally. May 2014 born ... «Farming Life, Jun 15»
10
Robert McNeil
A man of reason like the present writer would ditch it because he believes life on this planet to be a joke played by a doolally deity. The sea, in ... «Herald Scotland, Jun 15»

REFERENCE
« EDUCALINGO. Doolally [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/doolally>. Apr 2024 ».
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