▪ I. tantivy, adv., n., a., int. Now rare or arch.
(ˈtæntɪvɪ, tænˈtɪvɪ)
Also 7 tantivie, -vey, -ve, 8 -vee, -vi, tantwivy.
[Origin obscure: ? echoic, representing the sound of a horse's feet.]
† A. adv. At full gallop; swiftly; headlong.
| 1641 Brome Jov. Crew iv. i, Up at five a' Clock in the morning..And Tantivy all the country over, where Hunting, Hawking, or any Sport is to be made. 1648 Fraction in the Assembly 7 Till her Tongue travel'd tantivie, and more then a Canterbury pace. 1690 Pagan Prince xxi. 58 (heading) How he rode Tantivy to Papimania. 1705 Hickeringill Priest-Cr. ii. A ij b, (Like so many Asses) to let Hypocrisy bestride them,..and ride them—Tantivee. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue s.v., Away they went tantwivy, away they went full speed. 1823 Scott Peveril xxxiii, There are those amongst us who ride tantivy to Rome, and have already made out half the journey. |
B. n.
1. (from the adverb.) A rapid gallop; a ride at this pace. Also transf. and fig.
| a 1658 Cleveland Reply Parlt.-Officer Wks. (1687) 93, I expected to hear from you in the Language of..the Prodigal Son, and not in such a Tantivy of Language. 1680 V. Alsop Mischief Imposit. xi. 94 Jogging on their own pace, neither the high-trot nor the Tantivey. 1721 Cibber Refusal iv, Ah! poor Soul! piteous bad! All upon the Tantivy again! 1854 Thoreau Walden iv. 125 The Tantivy of wild pigeons, flying by twos and threes athwart my view..gives a voice to the air. |
2. A nickname given to the post-Restoration High-Churchmen and Tories, esp. in the reigns of Charles II and James II.
This arose 1680–81, when a caricature was published in which a number of High Church clergymen were represented as mounted upon the Church of England and ‘riding tantivy’ to Rome, behind the Duke of York. Cf. 1681 Trial of S. Colledge 25 Dugdale. And there is one Picture that I have not shewed yet... Jefferies. There are some Churchmen; what are they a doing? Dugdale. They are a parcel of Tantivy men riding to Rome, and here's the Duke of York, half Man, half Devil, trumpeting before them. Ibid. 59 Mr. Charlett. It was the pictures of the Tantivies and the Towzer [Roger L'Estrange], and he told me they were made by Colledge, he was a very ingenious man. a 1734 North Exam. i. ii. §130 About Half a Dozen of the Tantivies were mounted upon the Church of England, booted and spurred, riding it, like an old Hack, Tantivy to Rome.
| 1680–81 G. Hickes Spirit of Popery 23 The Clergy..called them Priests, and Bishops, which in these days would pass for Episcopal tantivies. 1681 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) I. 124 The former are called by the latter, tories, tantivies, Yorkists, high flown church men, &c. 1706 Phillips (ed. 6), Tantivy... Also a Nick-name given by the Dissenters to a Worldly-minded Church-man, that bestirs himself for Preferment. 1707 Hearne Collect. 24 Feb. (O.H.S.) I. 336 Hei! day! What in the High-Rope! a high-Flyer and a Tantivi! 1730 Swift Vind. Ld. Carteret 27 Favouring none but High-Church, High-flyers,..Tip-top-gallon-men, Jacobites, Tantivyes, Anti-Hanoverians [etc.]. 1841 Macaulay Ess., Comic Dramatists (1887) 613 Collier..was a Tory of the highest sort, such as in the cant of his age was called a Tantivy. 1849 ― Hist. Eng. ii. I. 256. |
3. erron. applied to a blast or flourish on a horn.
| 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue s.v., Tantwivy was the sound of the hunting horn in full cry, or that of a post horn. 1834 Medwin Angler in Wales II. 97 A schoolboy put an end to all the Childe Harolding by a tantivy on a bugle. |
C. adj. ? orig., in tantivy men and the like, attrib. use of B. 1; afterwards often of B. 2.
| 1681 T. Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 7 (1713) I. 42 In favour of the Tory and Tantivy Party. 1682 A. Behn City Heiress 30 Perverted with Ill Customs, Tantivie-Opinions, and Court-Notions. 1682 New News fr. Bedlam 26 Whereas you say it was a high Presbyterian Trot, I rather believe it was a Tantivy Gallop. 1691 Andros Tracts II. 246 Had King Rehoboam kept his Tantivy Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Non Resistance to himself,..the poor People had been his Servants for ever. 1715 State Quacks 21 High Tantivee Scaramouches make Choice of a vast Heap of Epithets as unintelligible..as impertinent. 1826 Scott Woodst. xx, Master Wildrake is one of the old school—one of the tantivy boys. 1884 Q. Rev. July 32 Birmingham itself..to become as great a stronghold of ‘tantivy’ politics as it was in the days when it rabbled Priestley. |
D. int. An imitation of the sound of galloping or scudding feet; later (erron.) of the sound of a horn.
| 1697 Vanbrugh æsop ii. i, æsop..But (like some of our friends) they found 'Twas safer much to scour. Rog. Tantive! Tantive! Tantive! 1719 D'Urfey Pills (1872) II. 188 Tantivee, tivee, tivee, tivee, High and Low. Hark, hark how the merry merry Horn does blow. 1821 Sporting Mag. VIII. 156 Tantivy! tantivy! the hunting-horn blew. |
▪ II. † tantivy, v. Obs. rare.
[f. prec.]
1. intr. To ride full tilt; to hurry away.
| 1681 T. Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 29 (1713) I. 186 You will Tantivy then out of Town. 1796 F. Burney Camilla iii. viii, Pray where are they gone, tantivying? |
2. trans. ? To call ‘tantivy’; to ‘give it him’ for calling one ‘tantivy’.
| 1681 T. Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 34 (1713) I. 218 Never a word said to them for Torying, Tantivying and Masquerading his Majesty's most loyal and dutiful Subjects. 1711 Swift Jrnl. to Stella 10 Oct., I'll ‘tantivy’ him with a vengeance. |