hoddy-doddy, n. and a. Obs. exc. dial.
[See prec. (In sense 3, with reference to the ‘horns’ of a cuckold; cf. sense 1.)]
A. n.
1. A small shell-snail. dial.
2. A short and dumpy person: cf. B.
Quot. a 1953 is perh. influenced by sense 3, noodle, ‘dodderer’.
| a 1553 Udall Royster D. i. i. (Arb.) 11 Sometime I hang on Hankyn Hoddydodies sleeue. 1702 Burlesque R. L'Estrange's Vis. Quev. 76 Some thick and short like Hoddy Doddies. 1723 Swift Cook Maid's Let. 10 A personable man, and not a spindle-shank'd hoddy-doddy. 1877 E. Lear Laughable Lyrics, You're such a Hoddy Doddy. a 1953 Dylan Thomas Quite early one Morning (1954) 64 Exhibitionists,..theological rhetoricians, historical hoddy-doddies, balletomanes,..windbags. 1969 R. J. White Women of Peasen Hall v. 56 Gardiner always refers to him as ‘Dids’, or a ‘Hoddy-doddy’—which is Suffolk for a diminutive person. |
† 3. A cuckold; a hen-pecked man; a noodle; a simpleton. Obs.
| 1598 B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. iv. viii. Wks. (Rtldg.) 25/1 You, That make your husband such a hoddie-doddie. 1656 S. Holland Zara 162 Where shall I bath this vexed body, Tormented to a Hoddy-Doddy? |
4. dial. (See quot.)
| 1847–78 Halliwell, Hoddy-doddy..a revolving light. Devon. |
B. adj.
1. Short and dumpy or clumsy.
| 1824 S. E. Ferrier Inher. lxxviii, Shoals of hoddy-doddy, white-haired, blubbered boys and girls. 1854 A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss. 329 Hoddy-Doddy, disproportionately stout. A short, lusty, squat looking person is said to be ‘all hoddy-doddy’..with us it is restricted to females. |
2. dial. Confused, in a whirl.
| a 1809 J. Palmer Like Master Like Man (1811) I. 159, I gets up, all hoddy-doddy, and goes out to see what were matter. |