Also in extended form tol de rol lol. A combination of syllables used as the refrain of a song, and hence as an exclamation of jollity, or the like. Also as sb., and attrib.
1765. H. Timberlake, Mem., 56. Just like the toldederols [sic] of many old English songs.
1782. Mrs. H. Cowley, Bold Stroke for Husb., IV. ii. Tol-de-rol! Ah, that won’t do—that won’t do! You can’t hide it.
1797. F. Reynolds, The Will, V. ii. What, Mandeville! Howard! all together! all reconciled!—Tol de rol lol!
1798. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Tales of Hoy, Wks. 1816, IV. 18. Let us have something in the tol-de-roll-loll-way—funny.
1815. W. H. Ireland, Scribbleomania, 40. Some scribes who write fast, and are flippant at rhymes, Think Genius is center’d in tol-de-rol chimes.
1861. Dutton Cook, P. Foster’s D., i. The policeman sings a sort of a ‘tol de rol.’
1889. Grove’s Dict. Mus., IV. 805. Ture-lure..., or Toure-loure, a very ancient lyrical burden or refrain … still survives in English popular music in the forms ‘tooral-looral-looral,’ and ‘tol-de-rol.’
