Heading
1866. W. D. Howells, Venetian Life, ch. xx. He is a dandy, of course,—all Italians are dandies,—but his vanity is perfectly harmless, and his heart is not bad.
1890. Lord Lamington, The Days of the Dandies [Title].
2. (thieves').—A bad gold coin. [In allusion to its careful make and composition, this coin containing a certain proportion of pure gold.]
1883. Jas. Greenwood, Tag, Rag, and Co., p. 24. It is not in paltry pewter 'sours' with which the young woman has dealings, but in dandys, which, rendered into intelligible English, means imitation gold coin—half-sovereigns and whole ones.
3. (Irish).—A 'small whiskey.'
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 horseflesh. The animal was purchased in Osh-kosh, 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 dandyprat? If we have a mind to a candle we will have a candle.
