housey-housey
(ˈhaʊsɪˈhaʊsɪ)
Also housie-housie, housy-housy and abbrev. housey, housie, (rare) housee.
[f. house n.1 9 c + -y6.]
A later name for the game of ‘house’ (see also quot. 1964).
| 1936 F. Richards Old-Soldier Sahib iii. 69 To draw a crowd they would shout: ‘Housee, housee, housee!’ 1937 Partridge Dict. Slang 410/2 Housey-housey! 1938 in Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. (1945) I. 461/1 The game so popular in army circles in Hong Kong under the name of tombola is now sweeping South London as a craze called housey-housey. It is played for the most part by housewives who are attracted to open-door booths by a glittering display of cutlery and chromium-plated clocks. 1945 Penguin New Writing XXVI. 30 He was shouting numbers hoarsely from the Housey-Housey stall. 1949 S. P. Llewellyn Troopships 3 Men playing housie-housie (tombola). 1949 E. de Mauny Huntsman in Career 163 Someone started up a ‘housey’ school. 1957 J. Frame Owls do Cry 42 Like the woman down the road..having parties every Saturday night with housey-housey and drink. 1960 Times (Canada Suppl.) 16 Mar. p. xv/5 Gala dances and housie-housie at night, bring people into contact. 1964 A. Wykes Gambling x. 249 The call used to assemble a group for a game of house was ‘housey-housey’. 1967 Stage 2 Mar. 4/1 ‘Housey’-addicts never had it so good! 1971 B. W. Aldiss Soldier Erect 30 Desperate till now to get off the hated boat with its hated routines of exercise and housey-housey, I was suddenly reluctant to leave the shelter of a familiar place. |