1838. Blackwood’s Mag., May, ‘Father Tom and the Pope.’ ‘Dimidium
cyathi vero apud Metropolitanos Hibernicos dicitur dandy.’
1883. Hawley Smart, Hawkins, ch. vi. It’s beautiful punch—ah, well,
as you’re so pressing, I’ll just take another dandy.
4. (American).—Anything first-rate; a daisy (q.v.). Also used
adjectively.
1888. Superior Inter-Ocean. Dr. H. Conner has invested in a fine
piece of horse-flesh. The animal was purchased in Oshkosh, and has
a record of 3′37. It is said to be a dandy.
1888. St. Louis Globe Democrat, 21 Jan. My box ain’t no good
mister, but I know a feller over dere dat’s got de dandy one.
1888. Missouri Republican, 2 Feb. I’m a terror from Philadelphia,
and I can lick any man in the world. I’m a dandy from away back;
the farther back they come the dandier they are, and I come from
the furthest back.
The dandy, adv. phr. (common).—All right; ‘your sort’; ‘the ticket.’
Cf., Dandy, sense 4. A north-country song has the line, ‘The South
Shields lasses are The Dandy O!’
1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xxvi. I guess our great
nation may be stumped to produce more eleganter liquor than this
here. It’s the dandy, that’s a fact.
1884. Notes and Queries, 6 S., ix., p. 35. I not long since heard a
carpenter whose saw did not cut, wanting, as he expressed it, ‘to
be sharpn’d,’ and who took up another in better condition, say,
‘Ah! that’s the dandy.’
Dandy-Master, subs. (thieves’).—The head of a gang of counterfeiters;
who makes the coin, but does not himself attempt to pass it. [From
dandy, subs., sense 2, + master.]
1883. Greenwood, Tag, Rag, and Co. The spirits obtained being
mostly bottled and labelled, and unopened, find a ready sale at
public-houses known to the dandy-master, so that no serious loss is
experienced in that direction.
Dandypratt or Dandipratt, subs. (old).—Primarily a dwarf; a page; by
implication a jackanapes. In all likelihood, the etymon of the modern
‘dandy,’ erroneously derived from the French dandin = a fool, as in
Molière, Georges Dandin. [From dandipratt, a half farthing of the time
of Henry VII.]
1580. Lingua, or the Five Senses, O. Pl., v., 172. This Heuresis,
this invention, is the proudest Jackanapes, the pertest,
self-conceited boy that ever breathed; because, forsooth, some odd
poet, or some such fantastic fellows, make much on him, there’s no
ho with him; the vile dandiprat will overlook the proudest of his
acquaintance.
1622. Massinger, Virgin-Martyr, II., i. The smug dandiprat smells
us out, whatsoever we are doing.
1657. Middleton, More Dissembler besides Women, Anc. Dr., IV., 372.
There’s no good fellowship in this dandiprat, this divedapper
[didapper], as in other pages.
1706. R. Estcourt, Fair Example, Act iii., Sc. 3, p. 40. Boy. A
candle, sir! ’tis broad daylight yet. Whims. What then, you little
dandiprat? If we have a mind to a candle we will have a candle.
1821. Scott, Kenilwortht, ch. xxvi. It is even so, my little
dandiprat, but who the devil could teach it thee.
Dang it! phr. (provincial).—A euphemism for ‘damn it!’ Also Dang my
buttons! and Dang me!
Danglers, subs. (thieves’).—A bunch of seals.
1859. Matsell, Rogues Lexicon, p. 124. And where the swag, so
bleakly pinched, A hundred stretches hence? The thimbles, slang,
and danglers filched, A hundred stretches hence?
Dan Tucker, subs. phr. (rhyming slang).—Butter. For synonyms, see
Cart-grease.
Darbies, subs. (common).—1. Handcuffs. [Origin uncertain. Father
Derby’s name (he is supposed to have been a noted usurer) was already
proverbial in 1576, but that is all now known of him.]
English Synonyms. Black-bracelets; buckles; Father derbie’s bands;
ruffles; wife; snitchers; clinkers; government securities; twisters;
darbies and joans (= fetters coupling two persons).
French Synonyms. Les alliances (popular = wedding rings); une bride
(thieves’ = a convicts’ chain); le bouclage (thieves’: also =
imprisonment); une cadenne (thieves’: applied to a neck-chain); un
cabriolet (thieves’ = a small rope or strap); une guirlande (a chain
for two).
Italian Synonym. Trionfo (literally = triumph).
Spanish Synonym. Calceta (properly = understocking).
1576. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, I., 787. To binde such babes in father
derbie’s bands.
1592. Greene, Quip for an Upstart Courtier (Harl. Misc., V., 405).
Then hath my broker an usurer at hand, as ill as himself, and he
brings the money; but they tie the poor soul in such darbies’ bands
[i.e., bonds], what with receiving ill commodities [i.e., goods in
lieu of cash], and forfeitures upon the bond, that they dub him
‘Sir John had Land,’ before they leave him; and share, like wolves,
the poor novice’s wealth betwixt them as a prey.
1602. Carew, Survey of Cornwall, p. 15 (ed. 1769). [Speaking of the
hard dealings and usurious tricks of the marchant Londoners in
their dealings with the Cornish tinners of his day, this writer
tells the wiles by which the poor wretches became bound ‘in
darbye’s bonds.’]
1676. Canting Song, ‘A Warning for Housekeepers.’ But when that we
come to the Whitt, Our darbies to behold.
1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 12, s.v.
1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress p. 77. Thus a new
set of darbies, when first they are worn, Makes the jail-bird
uneasy, though splendid their ray.
1836. Marryat, Japhet, ch. lvii. We may as well put on the darbies,
continued he, producing a pair of handcuffs.
1890. Standard, 7 April, p. 6, col. 3. (Addressing the officer):
Didn’t you take me by the scruff of the neck, and hold me whilst
others put the darbies on me?—I did not.
2. (common).—Sausages. Also bags of mystery and chambers of horrors
(q.v.).