gadabout, a. and n.
(ˈgædəbaʊt)
[f. gad v.2 + about.]
A. adj. Given to gadding or roving, wandering.
| 1817 Scott Let. to Mrs. Clephane 23 Mar. in Lockhart, The frivolous..gad-about manners of many of our modern belles. 1851 Helps Comp. Solit. iii. (1874) 25 Foolish gad⁓about, dinner-eating, dancing people. 1857 Hughes Tom Brown i. i, The gadabout propensities of my countrymen. |
B. n. One who gads about, esp. from motives of curiosity or gossip.
| 1837 Palmer Devonsh. Dialogue Gloss., Gad-a-bout, a gossiping rambling sort of person. 1849 Lytton Caxtons 140 Your shrew-mice are sad gad-abouts. 1859 Smiles Self-Help iii. (1860) 66 He even ran some risk of becoming a gadabout and busy-body. 1883 Harper's Mag. July 295/1 It is incapacity in this direction which makes gad⁓abouts of some women. |