frolic

Etymology

From Dutch vrolijk (“cheerful”), from Middle Dutch vrolijc, from Old Dutch frōlīk, from Proto-Germanic *frawalīkaz. Compare German fröhlich (“blitheful, gaily, happy, merry”). The first element, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *frawaz, is cognate with Middle English frow (“hasty”); the latter element, ultimately from *-līkaz, is cognate with -ly, -like.

adj

1. (now rare) Merry, joyous, full of mirth; later especially, frolicsome, sportive, full of playful mischief.
   The frolick wind that breathes the Spring, Zephyr with Aurora playing, As he met her once a Maying There on Beds of Violets blew, 1645, John Milton, “L’Allegro”, in Poems, London: Humphrey Moseley, page 31
   For women, born to be controul’d, Stoop to the forward and the bold, Affect the haughty and the proud, The gay, the frollick, and the loud. 1682, Edmund Waller, “Of Love”, in Poems, &c. written upon several occasions, and to several persons, 5th edition, London: H. Herringman, published 1686, page 73
   You meet him at the tables and conversations of the wise, the impertinent, the grave, the frolic, and the witty; … 1766, Joseph Addison, The Spectator - Volume 5 - Page 304
   Beale, under this frolic menace, took nothing back at all; he was indeed apparently on the point of repeating his extravagence, but Miss Overmore instructed her little charge that she was not to listen to his bad jokes …. 1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew
2. (obsolete, rare) Free; liberal; bountiful; generous.

verb

1. (intransitive) To make merry; to have fun; to romp; to behave playfully and uninhibitedly.
   We saw the lambs frolicking in the meadow.
2. (transitive, archaic) To cause to be merry.

noun

1. Gaiety; merriment.
   the annual jubilee […] filled the souls of old and young with visions of splendour, frolic and fun. 1876, Louisa May Alcott, “The King of Clubs and the Queen of Hearts”, in Hallberger's Illustrated Magazine: 1876
   By the old-fashioned magnificence of this procession, it might worthily have included his Holiness in person, with a suite of attendant Cardinals, if those sacred dignitaries would kindly have lent their aid to heighten the frolic of the Carnival. 2012 (original 1860), Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun - Page 276
2. A playful antic.
   He would be at his frolic once again. 1680, James Dillon, 3rd Earl of Roscommon, Art of Poetry
3. (obsolete, chiefly US) A social gathering.
   He came clattering up to the school door with an invitation to Ichabod to attend a merry-making or “quilting frolic,” to be held that evening at Mynheer Van Tassel’s 1820, Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow