dobby, dobbie
(ˈdɒbɪ)
[perh. a playful application of the proper name Dobbie, dim. of Dob, altered forms of Robbie, Rob; cf. dobbin.]
1. A silly old man, a dotard, a booby. dial.
| 1691 Nicholson Gloss. North. in Ray N.C. Words 140 A Dobby, Stultus, Fatuus..senex decrepitus & delirans. 1787 in Grose Provinc. Gloss. |
2. A household sprite or apparition supposed to haunt certain premises or localities; a brownie. dial. (In Sussex called Master Dobbs.)
| 1811 J. B. S. Morritt Let. to Scott 28 Dec. in Lockhart, She..became a ghost..under the very poetic nom de guerre of Mortham Dobby. 1822 W. Irving Braceb. Hall xvi. 136 An ancient grange..supposed..to be haunted by a dobbie. 1823 Scott Peveril x, The Dobby's Walk was within the inhabited domains of the Hall. |
3. Weaving. An attachment to a loom for weaving small figures (i.e. from twelve to thirty-six threads) similar in principle to the Jacquard attachment. Hence dobby-loom, dobby-machine; dobby-weave attrib.
| 1878 A. Barlow Weaving xxvi. 279 A small Jacquard machine, or dobby, was introduced in the silk trade in 1830 by Mr. S. Dean. 1882 Standard 7 Sept. 2/3 The ‘dobbies’—a modification of the Jacquard—were also shown. 1961 Guardian 30 Jan. 5/5 Some attractive suitcases..have ‘dobby-weave’ linings. |
4. In full dobby-horse. A wooden figure of a horse. Cf. hobby-horse n. 2, 4 b.
| 1879 J. C. Clough B. Bresskittle 9 (E.D.D.), Theer were shows an..dobby horses. 1886 R. Holland Gloss. Chester 101 Dobby-horse, a hobby-horse. An imitation horse which figures in the play performed by the ‘Soulers’. 1933 E. K. Chambers Eng. Folk-Play 214 Cheshire with a ‘Dobby-Horse’..and..there are similar rites with animals other than a Horse. 1937 J. B. Priestley I have been here Before ii. 63 He says we all go round and round like dobby horses. 1968 D. Braithwaite Fairground Architecture iii. 46 Early horse roundabouts, known as ‘Dobbies’,..were being produced at King's Lynn certainly in the early 1870's. Ibid. 158/1 Steam-driven 3-abreast Dobby Horses. |