▪ I. giddy, n.
(ˈgɪdɪ)
[f. the adj.]
= gid1.
| 1603 Harsnet Pop. Impost. xxi. 136 If any of you haue a sheepe sicke of the giddies, or an hogge of the mumps, or [etc.]. 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. (1807) II. 705 The Turn or Giddy is a disorder with which these animals [sheep] are often seized. 1888 Berksh. Gloss., Giddy, a disease of the brain in sheep. |
▪ II. giddy, a. (
ˈgɪdɪ)
Forms: 1
gidiᵹ, 3
gidi(e,
gidy,
gydi(e, (
guydi), 4–5
gedy, 6–7
giddie,
gyddy, 6–
giddy.
[OE. gidiᵹ insane, is shown by its guttural initial to be a graphic variant of *gydiᵹ:—prehistoric *gudīgo-, app. f. OTeut. *gudo{supm} god. The primary sense thus appears to be ‘possessed by a god, ἔνθεος’; cf. OE. ylfiᵹ insane, lit. ‘elf-possessed’, similarly f. ælf elf.] † 1. a. Mad, insane, foolish, stupid.
Obs.| c 1000 O.E. Gloss. (Napier) I. 5009 Limphaticum, þæne gidiȝan. c 1200 Winteney Rule St. Benet vii. (1888) 41 Se gidie [L. stultus] on his hleæhtre his stefene onhefð. a 1250 Owl & Night. 290 Hi hit seggeþ wel ilome Þat me ne chide wiþ þe gidie. 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 1542 He [Nero] bicom sone þer after pur gidy & wod. a 1300 Leg. Rood (1871) 58 Þou gidi [v.r. wode] hound quaþ Seint quiriac. |
b. dial. Mad with anger, furious.
| 1674 Ray N.C. Words 21 Giddy, mad with anger. a 1787 Pegge Derbicisms (E.D.S.), Giddy, mad; as a giddy horse, one that is wild or untam'd. 1828 Craven Gloss., Giddy, furious, heated with anger. 1847–78 in Halliwell. |
2. a. Having a confused sensation of swimming or whirling in the head, with proneness to fall; affected with vertigo, dizzy.
[This sense appears to be first exemplified in the compound
turngiddy.]
| 1570 Levins Manip. 97/23 Gyddie, vertiginosus. c 1586 C'tess Pembroke Ps. lx. ii, Dull horror was our drink, We drinking giddy grew. a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Jas. V, Wks. (1711) 110 His brains having been a little giddy (like one looking from a great height) by his advancement to honours and place in court. 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. iv. xviii. (1845) 277 My Head began to grow giddy. 1732 Berkeley Alciphr. ii. §26 They seem to me drunk and giddy with a false notion of liberty. 1821 Praed Poems (1864) I. 51 The Monk is as straight as a poplar tree, Gog is as giddy as Gog may be! 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xi. 78 For the first time during the journey he grew giddy. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 154, I felt at first giddy and faint, as if I had received a blow from the expert hand of a boxer. |
† b. transf. Of a ship: Staggering as if dizzy.
| 1700 Dryden Ceyx & Alcyone 198 The giddy ship ran round. 1725 Pope Odyss. ix. 79 Now here, now there, the giddy ships are born. |
c. Causing or apt to produce dizziness or swimming in the head, rendering dizzy.
| 1585 Abp. Sandys Serm. iii. 49 If thou sowe the giddie darnell of humane traditions, looke for like fruite. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, i. iv. 17 As we pac'd along Vpon the giddy footing of the Hatches. 1597 ― 2 Hen. IV, iii. i. 18 Vpon the high and giddie Mast. 1676 Dryden Aurengz. iv. i, Time these giddy Vapours will remove. 1718 Prior Power 124 The giddy precipice, and the dangerous flood. 1781 Cowper Hope 187 From infancy through childhood's giddy maze. 1847 Emerson Poems, Woodnotes i. 92 Whose giddy top the morning loved to gild. 1871 L. Stephen Playgr. Europe iii. (1894) 81 The giddy cliffs which surround them. |
d. Whirling or circling round with bewildering rapidity.
| 1593 Shakes. Lucr. 952 To..turne the giddy round of Fortunes wheele. a 1652 J. Smith Sel. Disc. ix. 454 With swift and giddy motions. 1715–20 Pope Iliad xviii. 695 So whirls a wheel, in giddy circle toss'd. 1764 Goldsm. Trav. 417 While above the giddy tempest flies. a 1793 G. White in Selborne (1854) 8 The happy schoolboy brings transported forth His long-forgotten scourge and giddy gig. 1810 Scott Lady of L. ii. xxxi, Amid his senses' giddy wheel. 1842 Tennyson Sin 29 The strong tempestuous treble..Ran into its giddiest whirl of sound. 1890 R. Bridges Shorter Poems iv. 13, I lean across the paddock pale And gaze upon the giddy mill. |
e. dial. Of a sheep: Affected with the ‘gid’.
giddy mutton (see
quot. 1881).
| 1847–78 Halliwell, Giddy,..a term applied to sheep that have hydatides on the brain. 1881 Leicestersh. Gloss. s.v., Lambs and sheep are said to be giddy when they take to turning round in an aimless sort of way..When the animal is killed as it generally is on manifesting this gyratory tendency, the meat is known as ‘giddy lamb’, or ‘giddy mutton’. |
3. a. Of persons, their attributes and actions: Mentally intoxicated, ‘elated to thoughtlessness’ (J.); incapable of or indisposed to serious thought or steady attention; easily carried away by excitement; ‘light-headed, frivolous, flighty, inconstant.
to play the giddy goat: see
goat 3 b;
to play the giddy ox: to behave foolishly or frivolously; to play the fool.
Chiefly
transf. from sense 2; but some of the uses may descend directly from sense 1.
| a 1547 Surrey æneid ii. 33 So diuerse ranne the giddy peoples minde. 1561 T. Norton Calvin's Inst. ii. 81 Such as do alway sauor of a certaine giddy imagination. 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, iii. i. 83 [They] Doe pelt so fast at one anothers Pate, That many haue their giddy braynes knockt out. 1626 Bacon Sylva §698 It may be Gnats and Flies haue their Imagination more mutable and giddy. a 1631 Donne Poems (1650) 118 Giddie fantastique Poets. 1643 Milton Divorce Wks. (1847) 158/2 Many they shall reclaim from obscure and giddy sects. 1681 Dryden Abs. & Achit. i. 216 Govern'd by the Moon, the giddy Jews Tread the same Track when she the Prime renews: And once in twenty Years..By natural Instinct they change their Lord. 1713 Steele Guardian No. 5 ¶6 The giddy part of her sex will have it she is in love. 1766 Goldsm. Vic. W. xix, She said twenty giddy things that looked like joy. 1779 F. Burney Diary Oct., A mere playful, giddy, romping child. 1822 Hazlitt Table-t. Ser. ii. xv. (1869) 301 Art..still allures our giddy admiration. a 1839 Praed Poems (1864) II. 26 And giddy girls of gay fifteen Mimic his manner and his mien. 1845 Disraeli Sybil (1863) 257 She..thinks she is gay when she is only giddy. 1892 Ally Sloper's Half-Holiday 19 Mar. 91/2 Fanny Robinson was flighty; she played the giddy ox—I mean, heifer. 1915 W. S. Maugham Of Human Bondage xiii. 47 Don't play the giddy ox. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 9, I don't want to be debagged! Don't you play the giddy ox with me! |
| absol. 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. i. 282 'Twould warn the giddy and awake the gay. 1838 Lytton Alice 55 She seemed born, not only to captivate the giddy, but to turn the heads of the sage. |
b. Used (often ironically) as an intensive; also used in the expression of surprise
my giddy aunt (
cf. aunt 5).
| 1896 Kipling Seven Seas 171 'E's a kind of a giddy harumfrodite—soldier an' sailor too! 1899 ― Stalky 28 King'll have to prove his charges up to the giddy hilt. Ibid. 112, I spoke the giddy truth... I said I didn't know. Ibid. 142 Hullo. What's the giddy jest? 1915 J. Buchan 39 Steps iv. 97 A giddy lot Scudder's friends cared for peace and reform. 1919 ‘W. N. P. Barbellion’ Jrnl. Disappointed Man 268 Oh my giddy aunt! 1924 A. J. Small Frozen Gold iii. 92 The giddy part of it is that our strike isn't up north at all. |
4. Comb., as
giddy-brain,
giddy-head (said of a person);
giddy-brained,
giddy-drunk,
giddy-headed,
giddy-paced,
giddy-pated,
giddy-witted adjs.;
giddy-gander dial. = gandergoose;
giddy-go-round, something that revolves with giddy rapidity,
esp. a ‘merry-go-round’ or ‘roundabout’;
giddy-goating vbl. n., acting the ‘giddy goat’, fooling about;
† giddy-lumpishness, heaviness and dizziness (of the head).
| a 1652 Brome Covent Gard. i. Wks. 1873 II. 17 This kicksy wincy *Giddibrain will spoil all. 1796 Plain Sense I. 199 Lady Almeria was a little giddy-brain. |
| 1561 T. Norton Calvin's Inst. i. 19 Certain *giddy brained men. 1682 Otway Venice Preserved iii. i, Useless, giddy-brain'd Ass! 1784 Denouement 108 A foolish penchant for a little giddy brained girl. |
| 1827 Coleridge Let. in Mem. H. F. Cary (1847) II. 176 Even as a man *giddy-drunk throws his arms about, and clasps hold of a barber's block for support. |
| 1847–78 Halliwell, *Giddygander, the orchis. Dorset. 1863 Barnes Dorset Gloss., Giddygander, the early purple orchis (orchis mascula)..and other common species of orchis. |
| 1883 J. H. Ewing Jackanapes iii. 20 His friend could not..ride in the *giddy-go-round. 1893 R. Kipling Many Invent., My Lord the Elephant 65 He put his arm round av' me an' I came into the sun, the hills an' the rocks skippin' big giddy-go-rounds. |
| 1891 S. J. Duncan Amer. Girl Lond. 79 A little *giddy-goating does nobody any harm. |
| 1641 ‘Smectymnuus’ Vind. Answ. ii. 29 Before he..condemne those for *giddyheads that will not take his word for proofs. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 106 The Heir of Bantam is..of little Credit, being a Giddy⁓head. |
| 1575 Turbervile Faulconrie 148 So much the greater ought your bells to be by how much more you see your hawke *gyddy headed. 1639 G. Daniel Vervic. 395 Oh the sickly tast Of giddie-headed Popularitie. 1748 Smollett Rod. Rand. xlvi, Dangling after a parcel of giddy⁓headed girls. |
| 1678 Yng. Man's Call. 389 He [prince Henry] grew more pale than formerly..yet he did not much complain, but only of *giddy-lumpishness in his forehead. |
| 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. ii. iv. 6 These most briske and *giddy⁓paced times. |
| 1604 R. Armin Ded. in G. Dugdale's Disc. Pract. Eliz. Caldwell A ij, We haue many *giddie pated Poets, that coulde haue published this Report with more eloquence. 1830 Scott Demonol. viii. 240 These enthusiastic and giddy-pated girls. |
| c 1830 R. Sullivan in Casquet Lit. V. 173/1 Betty was a reckless, *giddy-witted baggage. |
▪ III. giddy, v. (
ˈgɪdɪ)
Also 7
gyddy.
[f. the adj.] 1. trans. To make or render giddy.
| 1602 Warner Alb. Eng. ix. li. (1612) 232 Your Darnell giddieth so. 1617 Collins Def. Bp. Ely ii. viii. 317 So are you gyddied and hurled vp and downe, with euery blast of vaine doctrine. 1638 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 28 Betele..giddies the braine. 1710 Acc. Last Distemp. T. Whigg ii. 44 After he had giddy'd his Guests by a Chase of various Meanders and winding ways. 1799 Coleridge Lett. (1895) 284 Oh this strange..scene-shifter, Death!—that giddies one with insecurity. 1889 C. Edwardes Sardinia 163 That he may not be giddied by his perpetual rotations. |
2. intr. To become giddy.
| 1845 S. Judd Margaret vi. (1871) 28 My head swims, my brain giddies. |
† 3. ? To turn
round with giddy movement.
| 1615 Chapman Odyss. ix. 135 Had not..a sodaine North⁓wind fetcht, With an extreame sea, quite about againe, Our whole endeuours; and our course constraine To giddie round; and with our bowd sailes greete Dreadfull Maleia. |
Hence
ˈgiddying ppl. a., that makes giddy.
| 1820 M. Starke Direct. Trav. on Cont. ii. (1823) 34 The Chapeau, a giddying eminence opposite to Montanvert. 1844 Ld. Houghton Mem. Many Scenes, Illum. St. Peter's ii. 135 At last that giddying sight took form. a 1882 Longfellow Mich. Angelo i. iv, You think..my head Swims with the giddying whirl of life about me. 1886 T. Hardy Mayor Casterbr. xxvii, One that creeps into the maiden heart like the giddying worm into the sheep's brain. |