Meaning of Moll Kelly | Babel Free

Definitions

A fictional person used in swearing oaths, especially "By the powers of Moll Kelly", often in caricatures of the speech of uneducated Irish people.

obsolete

Examples

“Hubbuboo! by my soul, it is all true that I tell ye, I stood it myself, till the heart in my belly Flew up to my mouth, by the soul of Moll Kelly! And the thing sav'd my life was the drop of a dram.”

“'An Irish cat run away!' sneered Grammachree, 'no; never! by the powers of Moll Kelly! they eat one another up!'”

“Bravo! bravo! och! by the powers of Moll Kelly's great big kettle, but we must be after having a toast now, so be after giving us a dacent one, Mr. Taffy.”

“In fact, Paddy has oaths rising gradually from the lying ludicrous to the superstitious solemn, each of which finely illustrates the nature of the subject to which it is applied. When he swears "By the contints o' Moll Kelly's Primer," or "By the piper that played afore Moses," you are, perhaps, as strongly inclined to believe him as when he draws upon a more serious oath; that is, you almost regret the thing is not the gospel that Paddy asserts it to be.”

“Be the piper of Moll Kelly, you're a broth of a boy with the fair sex; go on and prosper; faith, I think you might turn Turk with advantage.”

“Well, be the power of Moll Kelly, what do you think? I — I — I awoke! — for it was sleeping I was, all the time, and found myself partly covered by the coming-in tide!”

“'By the hairs o' Moll Kelley's cat,' says he, 'there's the mikerobes of rheumatiz,' says he.”

“"Be the powers av Moll Kelly!" ejaculated the saloonkeeper, "but that bates all, yet!["]”

“By the powers o' Moll Kelly, 'f I'd a ben there when ye turned Hepsy an her baby out doors I'd 'a made you carry home a hornet in yer hat, law or no law.”

“And be the powers of Moll Kelly, neighbour topsowyer, it will be a lozenge to me all my lauffe.”

CEFR level