Lilly-low
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A flame, especially a bright, small or lovely one. Scotland, UK, dialectal, obsolete
"Should any pretend to quibble at the little eſcapes of ſuch men, the bulk of the world would know no more of it than of the Anatomiſts interſcapularia, and the reſt would conſider it as a north-country Lilly-Low, that is, a mere ſtraw-fire."
Example
More examples"Should any pretend to quibble at the little eſcapes of ſuch men, the bulk of the world would know no more of it than of the Anatomiſts interſcapularia, and the reſt would conſider it as a north-country Lilly-Low, that is, a mere ſtraw-fire."
Etymology
Likely from Scots lilly (“lovely”) + low (“flame”). The first term might also directly come from liefly.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.