doll
Pluraldolls
Pluraldolls
- 1A small figure made to look like a human being, used as a toy.
My daughter tucked her doll into bed beside her and turned out the light.
Grandma still keeps the china dolls she played with as a girl.
- 2
- 3A young woman regarded as attractive.
In the old gangster film, the hero tips his hat and tells his pal that the new singer at the club is quite a doll.
My grandfather loved to say that when he first saw my grandmother at the dance hall, she was the prettiest doll in town.
UsageIt judges looks alone, so it can sound belittling. Typical phrases: quite a doll, a real doll.
Similarbeauty, babe, looker, stunner, knockout
Note
Calling a woman this compares her to the toy: pretty and decorative. Elizabeth Gaskell already writes of "your pretty doll" in The Grey Woman (1861), and her speaker means it scornfully.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Elizabeth Gaskell wrote The Grey Woman. elizabethgaskellhouse.co.uk
- The Grey Woman was first published in 1861. elizabethgaskellhouse.co.uk
- The exact words “your pretty doll” occur in the story. gutenberg.ca
- The phrase is spoken scornfully by a hostile companion of the woman's husband; this interpretation is supported by the surrounding narration. gutenberg.ca
- 4A term of endearment used much like darling or sweetheart.
“Sit down, doll, the coffee's almost ready,” the waitress said.
“Don't wait up for me, doll,” he called on his way out the door.
UsageUsually set off by commas, often at the end: thanks, doll. It assumes a warmth a stranger may not share.
Similardarling, sweetheart, honey, dear, love
Note
As a form of address it belongs to the US, Australia and Scotland, and it usually comes set off by commas, often at the end of a question: Stephen King's Palmer, in Willa (2006), asks, "They didn't sell cigarettes where you were, doll?"
Less common meanings
- 5A good-natured person who is willing to cooperate or help.
Be a doll and grab my keys off the kitchen counter.
Thanks for driving me to the airport at five in the morning, you're a doll.
UsageMost often in be a doll and + a request (be a doll and grab my keys), or you're a doll as thanks.
Similarangel, dear, gem, star, sweetheart
- 6A woman who is transgender, or any person whose gender identity is transfeminine.
She found a group of dolls online who helped her through the first months of her transition.
Every doll in the support group brought a dish to her name-change party.
UsageAn in-group word that can land badly from an outsider, so use it only for someone who uses it about themselves.
Note
Community slang among trans women and transfeminine people, who often use it warmly of one another. Between insiders it signals affection and solidarity, and supporters echo it in the slogan "Protect the Dolls." From a stranger in conversation, though, it can sound overfamiliar or patronizing.
- 7A pill containing a barbiturate or an amphetamine.
Each night she looked at the bottle of Seconals with affection. She never could do this without the dolls. She would have spent sleepless nights, smoking, worrying—and she would have lost her nerve.
1966, Jacqueline Susann, Valley of the Dolls - 8A dollar, as a sum of money.
- 9The smallest pig in a litter, or the one kept as a pet.
- 10A temporary barrier set up on a course during horse racing.
- 11To place a barrier in front of a section of a racecourse so that it is left out of a horse race.
- 12In railroad signaling, a short secondary post that carries a signal and rises from a bracket on the main post or from a signal gantry.
- 13To warm something moderately or make it lukewarm; to mull.
Showing meanings only.
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Origin
The word comes from Doll, an affectionate short form of the given name Dorothy. American writer Jacqueline Susann coined the drug sense in her 1966 novel Valley of the Dolls. The book and its 1967 film adaptation helped make that use widely known.