jolly-hockey-sticks

English

Etymology

From a catchphrase introduced in a BBC radio comedy programme, Educating Archie (1950)[1].

Adjective

jolly-hockey-sticks (comparative more jolly-hockey-sticks, superlative most jolly-hockey-sticks)

1. (UK) Wholesomely athletic and enthusiastic, in a manner stereotypically associated with traditional British public schools for girls.
   • 2003, Caroline Upcher, Falling for Mr. Wrong:

     Polly couldn't abide Pat Walsh's bossy, jolly hockey-sticks manner and her curious predilection for calling absolutely everyone "babe."

   • 2005, Jim Christy, The redemption of Anna Dupree, page 122:

     We had to march along behind one of our mistresses — they were all very jolly hockey-sticks. March to church and then a lockstep turn about the park, everyone staring at us, knowing where we were from.

   • 2006, Richard E. Grant, The Wah-Wah diaries: the making of a film:

     There was a brigade of horsy women with enormous arses, moustaches and jolly-hockey-sticks ideas about everything walloping about in all directions, whose skins had weathered like leather and whose breath and hands always smelled of horse saliva and dung.

   • 2008, Alison Bowyer, Dawn French: The Unauthorized Biography, page 19:

     Boarding-school life was a lot like Mallory Towers or St Clare's, the fictional jolly-hockey-sticks schools created by Enid Blyton. 'We would have midnight feasts, and I suppose it was a bit like the Blyton books,' recalls Susan Lawrence.