• (RP) IPA: /ˈkæɹəl/
• (GA) IPA: /ˈkæɹəl/

carol (plural carols)

1. (historical) A round dance accompanied by singing#Noun|singing.
2. A ballad or song of joy.
   • c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), [London]: Printed by Iames Roberts, published 1600, OCLC 35186948 ↗, [Act II, scene i] ↗:

     The humane mortals want their winter heere / No night is now with hymme or carroll bleſt; / Therefore the Moone (the gouerneſſe of floods) / Pale in her anger, waſhes all the aire; / That Rheumaticke diſeaſes do abound.

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 228732415 ↗, book II, pages 42–43 ↗:

     Oppos'd to her, on t' other Side, advance / The coſtly Feaſt, the Carol, and the Dance, / Minſtrels, Muſick, Poetry, and Play, / And Balls by Night, and Turnaments by Day.

   • 1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, “The River Bank”, in The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, OCLC 305520 ↗, page 2 ↗:

     The sunshine struck hot on his fur, soft breezes caressed his heated brow, and after the seclusion of the cellarage he had lived in so long the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost like a shout.

   1. (specifically) A (usually traditional) religious or secular song sung at Christmastime.

      They sang a Christmas carol.

      • 1827, [John Keble], “Christmas Day”, in The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year, volume I, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by W. Baxter, for J. Parker; and C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], OCLC 1029642537 ↗, page 29 ↗:

        Think on th' eternal home, / The Saviour left for you; / Think on the Lord most holy, come / To dwell with hearts untrue: / So shall ye tread untir'd his pastoral ways, / And in the darkness sing your carol of high praise.

      • 1843 December 18, Charles Dickens, “Stave I. Marley’s Ghost.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], OCLC 55746801 ↗, pages 16–17 ↗:

        Foggier yet, and colder! Piercing, searching, biting cold. If the good Saint Dunstan had but nipped the Evil Spirit's nose with a touch of such weather as that, instead of using his familiar weapons, then indeed he would have roared to lusty purpose. The owner of one scant young nose, gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs, stooped down at Scrooge's keyhole to regale him with a Christmas carol: but at the first sound of— / "God bless you merry gentleman! / May nothing you dismay!" / Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action, that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost.

• French: carole

• Russian: весёлая пе́сня
• Spanish: carol

• French: chœur
• German: Weihnachtslied
• Russian: коля́дка
• Spanish: villancico

carol (carols, present participle carolling; past and past participle carolled)

1. (intransitive, historical) To participate in a carol (a round dance accompanied by singing#Noun|singing).
2. (intransitive) To sing#Verb|sing in a joyful manner.
   • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “October. Aegloga Decima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: Printed by Hugh Singleton, […], OCLC 606515406 ↗; republished as The Shepheardes Calender, […], imprinted at London: By Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […], 1586, OCLC 837880809 ↗, folio 41, recto ↗:

     And when the ſtubborne ſtroke of ſtronger ſtounds, / Has ſomewhat ſlackt the tenor of thy ſtring; / Of loue and luſtihead tho maiſt thou ſing, / And carroll lowde, and leade the Millers rounde, [...]

3. (intransitive) To sing carols; especially to sing Christmas carols in a group.
4. (transitive) To praise#Verb|praise or celebrate in song.
   • 1634 October 9 (first performance)​, [John Milton], H[enry] Lawes, editor, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: Printed [by Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, OCLC 228715864 ↗; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, OCLC 1113942837 ↗, lines 842–851, page 29 ↗:

     [S]till ſhe [Sabrina, a water nymph] retaines / Her maiden gentleneſſe, and oft at eve / Viſits the herds#English|heards along the twilight meadows, / Helping all urchin blaſts, and ill lucke ſignes, / That the ſhrewd medling elfe delights to make, / Which ſhe with precious vialed#English|viol'd liquors heales; / For which the ſhepheards at their feſtivalls / Carroll her goodneſſe lowd in ruſticke layes, / And throw ſweet garland wreaths into her ſtreame / Of pancies, pinks, and gaudie daffadills.

5. (transitive) To sing (a song) cheerfully.

carol (plural carols)

1. (architecture) Alternative form of carrel.

1. A female given name, popular in the middle of the 20th century.
   • 1873, Mary Mapes Dodge, St. Nicholas: A Monthly Magazine for Boys and Girls (page 179)

     Carol is fifteen years old and I'm sixteen. Her name is really Caroline, but she hates it and wants to be called Carol - it's so much prettier.

   • 2006, Joyce Winters, Let Your Light Shine ISBN 160034593X (page 209)

     "Holly, would you mind if I named my little girl 'Holly'? I mean, it's right around Christmas time, and I always think of holly with Christmas. I like the name Carol, too, like Christmas carol. I heard once that the name Carol means 'song of joy'".

• Carole

• French: Carole
• Russian: Кэ́рол

1. A male given name.
   • 1899, The English Illustrated Magazine, MacMillan and Co., item notes V.21, page 295

     This table shows the curious fact that little Prince Carol of Roumania (who is at once the great-grandson and the third cousin of Queen Victoria) has a better hereditary right to the British Throne than Her Majesty.

   • 1933, Eleanor Farjeon, Over the Garden Wall: Boys' Names

     What splendid names for boys there are!

     There's Carol like a rolling car […]