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a song, especially of joy.
a Christmas song or hymn.
a seat in a bay window or oriel.
a compartment in a cloister, similar to a carrel.
a kind of circular dance.
to sing Christmas songs or hymns, especially in a group performing in a public place or going from house to house.
to sing, especially in a lively, joyous manner; warble.
to sing joyously.
to praise or celebrate in song.
Historical Examples

Is his image as utterly gone from her mind as his lithe and striding figure, his carolling voice are gone from our fields?
Amy Foster Joseph Conrad

Let it sing, for it is like a joyous bird, carolling on ze topmost bough.
The Girls of St. Cyprian’s Angela Brazil

Their carolling is only interrupted during moulting, and very much tends to excite their companions to warble in their turn.
The Natural History of Cage Birds J. M. Bechstein

Birds were flitting from spray to spray, carolling their hymns of praise to Deity.
Lectures on Language William S. Balch

It was the carolling of her few words, so free and unconcerned in tone.
Mathieu Ropars: et cetera William Young

Before she had gone far I could again hear her carolling cheerfully, “Thine, Father, is yon sky so bright.”
Aunt Kitty’s Tales Maria J. McIntosh

The wanderer sleeps till the birds are carolling loudly in the trees.
The Little Lady of Lagunitas Richard Henry Savage

But out of the west rolled the melody of the carolling boy, the voice of one singing in the wilderness, young and undismayed.
Sally of Missouri R. E. Young

Deep down inside her being something sang; outside, the carolling of the lark continued, blithe and joyous in the breaking dawn.
The Promise of Air Algernon Blackwood

He seemed remarkably cheerful, as carolling he drove his carjole and cajoled his horse through the dripping pine forests.
Three in Norway James Arthur Lees

noun
a joyful hymn or religious song, esp one (a Christmas carol) celebrating the birth of Christ
(archaic) an old English circular dance
verb -ols, -olling, -olled (US) -ols, -oling, -oled
(intransitive) to sing carols at Christmas
to sing (something) in a joyful manner

masc. proper name, from Medieval Latin Carolus (see Charles). As a fem. proper name, an abbreviation of Caroline. The masc. name never has been popular in U.S.; the fem. form was common after c.1900 and was a top-10 name for U.S. girls born 1936-1950.
n.

c.1300, “joyful song,” also “dance in a ring,” from Old French carole “kind of dance in a ring, round dance accompanied by singers,” perhaps from Medieval Latin choraula “a dance to the flute,” from Latin choraules “flute-player,” from Greek khoraules “flute player who accompanies the choral dance,” from khoros “chorus” (see chorus) + aulein “to play the flute,” from aulos “reed instrument” (see alveolus). The meaning “Christmas hymn of joy” is attested from c.1500.
v.

c.1300, “to dance in a ring,” from Old French caroler, from carole (see carol (n.)). As “to sing” from late 14c. Related: Caroled; caroling.