drollery

[Fr. drôlerie.] 1. Idle sportive jokes, buffoonery, jesting, com. icality, fun, humor. "They hang between heaven and hell, borrow the Christian's faith, and the atheist's drollery upon it."Government of the Tongue . chin, bench; go, gem; thin, this; IMG:content-0556.png:[blocks in formation] "A living drollery . " - Shakesp .: Tempest , iii. 3. *4. A lively or comical sketch, drawing, . "And for thy walls, a pretty slight drollery , or the story of the Prodigal."- Shakesp .: Henry IV., Pt . II ., ii. 1. *drōll-ic, a. [Eng. droll; -ic.] Pertaining to a droll or puppet-show. "Some other high prince or drollic story."-Fielding Jonathan Wild , bk. if., ch. iii. *drōll-ing, pr . par ., a. & 8. [DROLL, v.] A. & B. As pr. par. & particip . adj .: (See the verb.) C. As subst.: Drollery, buffoonery, jesting. "By their rude drolling and buffoon ing to expose to contempt all that which the wisest and best men in the world have always had the greatest veneration for." Hallywell : Moral Sermons, p. 56. drōll-Ing-ly, adv. [Eng. drolling; -ly.] In a droll, jesting, or comical manner; drolly. "And yet then there are very few are so modish as to wave the talk of religion, or to talk lightly and drollingly of it." Goodman: Winter Evening Conf . , pt. i.