Nelly

//ˈnɛli// adj, name, noun, slang

adj, name, noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1
A person's life. Cockney, slang
2
An effeminate homosexual man. derogatory, slang
3
A silly person. British, slang
4
A giant petrel, Macronectes giganteus and Macronectes halli.

Adjective

1
Unmanly; effeminate. slang
"From Christopher Street to Castro Street, these men are peddling the same message. I'm butch, a macho man. Well, it ain't necessarily so. In fact, as a general rule of thumb, the butcher the get-up, the nellier the wearer."

Proper Noun

1
Alternative spelling of Nellie. alt-of, alternative
2
One of the Frazier Islands where nellies breed.
3
A surname.

Synonyms

break-bones ponce queen

Example

"Nils and Nelly walked across the mudflats to Langeoog."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Shortened from Nelly Duff, for puff, i.e. breath of life.

Etymology 2

From the woman's name Nelly.

Related phrases

high nelly high-nelly negative Nelly nervous nelly nervous-nelly nice-nelly wet nelly whoa, Nelly giant petrel macronectes giganteus macronectes halli

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.