The Merriam-Webster Word of the Day is frolic. Read on for what it means, how it’s used, and more.

What It Means

Frolic means “to play and run about happily.”

One of the highlights of spring on the farm is watching newborn lambs frolic in the meadow.

FROLIC in Context

“In front of her, kids frolicked on the playground and grassy field, dusting themselves off after tumbles and shrieking with joy.” — Kate Selig, The Mercury News (San Jose, California), 21 June 2021

Did You Know?

Frolic is a word rooted in pleasure. Its most common function today is as a verb meaning “to play and run about happily,” as in “children frolicking in the waves,” but it joined the language in the 16th century as an adjective carrying the meaning of its Dutch source vroolijk: “full of fun; merry.” Shakespeare’s Puck used it this way in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, saying “And we fairies … following darkness like a dream, now are frolic.” Verb use quickly followed, and by the early 17th century the word was also being used as a noun, as in “an evening of fun and frolic.”