▪ I. bandy, v.
(ˈbændɪ)
Also 6–7 bandie.
[The origin of this and of bandy n.1 is very obscure. Cf. F. bander ‘to bandie at Tennis’ Cotgr.; perhaps f. bande side. With Branch II. cf. F. bander, in se bander contre, ‘to bandy or oppose himself against, with his whole power; or to joyne in league with others against’ (Cotgr.), also Sp. bandear ‘to bandy, to follow a faction, to help a side, to become factious’ (Minsheu), It. bandare ‘to side or bandy’ (Florio). Cf. also band v.1: but while these answer in sense, no satisfactory explanation of the terminal -ie, -y presents itself.]
I. 1. trans. To throw or strike (a ball) to and fro, as in the games of tennis and bandy. (Mostly with figurative reference.)
| 1577 Holinshed Chron. III. 1077/2 Kingdoms..be no balles for me to bandie. 1592 Nashe P. Penilesse 15 b, They may make Ruffians hall of Hell: and there bandy balles of Brimstone at one anothers head. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. 845 Had we no Mastery at all over our Thoughts, but they were all like Tennis Balls, Bandied, and Struck upon us, as it were by Rackets from without. 1842 W. Grove Corr. Phys. Forces 20 A ball of caoutchouc, bandied about. 1860 Tennyson Vision of Sin iv, xi, To be the ball of Time, Bandied by the hands of fools. |
b. absol.
| 1612 Webster Vittoria Cor. (N.) While he had been bandying at tennis He might have..struck His soul into the hazard. 1699 Coles Eng. Lat. Dict., To bandy at Tennis, reticulo pellere. |
c. intr. To bound like a ball struck or driven.
| 1658 R. White tr. Digby's Powd. Symp. (1660) 20 Untill she bandies..upon another solid body, and so she continueth to make new boundings here and there. |
† 2. To toss, drive, or throw aside or away. Obs.
| 1591 Troub. Raigne K. John (1611) 69 If Arthurs death be dismall to be heard, Bandie the newes for rumors of untruth: He liues my Lord. a 1593 Marlowe Lust's Dom. i. iv, The Cardinal, would bandy me away from Spain. 1667 H. More Div. Dial. i. §8 (1713) 17 If the Earth had been bandied out of one Vortex into another. |
3. To toss from side to side, like a tennis-ball.
| 1596 Spenser State Irel. Wks. (1862) 531/2 And from one hand to another doe bandie the service like a tennis-ball. 1650 Fuller Pisgah ii. ix. 190 Those Lepers..bandied betwixt two deaths of the famine and the sword. 1712 Blackmore Creation ii. (1736) 47 What vig'rous arm..Bandies the mighty globe still to and fro? 1864 Gilbert & Churchill Dolom. Mts., The path..was bandied from side to side on rough bridges. |
4. To toss or pass from one to another, in a circle or group; to toss about.
| 1600 Dekker Fortun. Wks. I. 143 Now he's bandyed by the seas in scorne, From wave to wave. 1675 Crowne Calisto i. i. 8 Hark, how they bandy praise and flattery round! 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. xxx, The stories they invent..and bandy from mouth to mouth! |
b. (Often emphasized by about.)
| 1597 Drayton Mortimer. 17 But fortune..straight begins to bandy him about. 1748 Anson Voy. ii. ii. 130 Thus was this unhappy vessel bandied about within a few leagues of her intended harbour. 1847 Barham Ingol. Leg. (1877) 234 Bandied about thus from pillar to post. 1872 Black Adv. Phaeton xxxi. 416 Sharp words were being bandied about. 1885 Sir J. Pearson Law Times Rep. LII. (N.S.) 183/1 Suitors being bandied about from one court to another. |
5. To discuss from mouth to mouth. Cf. 4 b.
| 1642 View of Print. Book int. Observ. 40 To debate and bandy the principles of Government. 1692 Wagstaffe Vind. Carol. i. 18 A Bill was preferr'd..touching Monopolies, and was strongly bandied on both sides. 1768 H. Walpole Hist. Doubts 40 His own legitimacy, which was too much connected with that of his brothers to be tossed and bandied about before the multitude. 1850 W. Irving Goldsm. xxix. 289 Your name is..frequently bandied at table among us. |
b. absol. or intr.
| 1603 Florio Montaigne (1634) 191 Lucretius, may Philosophie and bandie at his pleasure. |
6. To give and take (blows, words, reproaches, compliments, etc.); to exchange. to bandy words = to argue pertinaciously, wrangle.
| 1589 Greene Menaph. (Arb.) 45 It little fits in this companie to bandie taunts of love. 1598 Greenwey Tacitus' Ann. vi. viii. 134 Rushing in couragiously to bandy stroakes. 1677 Govt. Venice 271 When they had bandied Arguments at home, they went to fight their Enemies abroad. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth iv, Bandy not words, but begone. 1855 Motley Dutch Rep. I. 27 Bandying blows in the thickest of the fight. |
b. with (and recently against) a person.
| 1593 Nashe Christ's T. (1613) 79 His Backe bandieth colours with the Sunne. 1605 Shakes. Lear i. iv. 92 Do you bandy lookes with me, you Rascall? 1767 Johnson in Boswell (1831) II. 36 It was not for me to bandy civilities with my sovereign. 1847 L. Hunt Men, Wom. & Bks. II. xi. 280 The leaders..bandied against one another the foulest charges. 1880 Dixon Windsor III. vii. 69 She could not bandy words with insolent pages. |
c. one thing for another.
| 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, i. iv. 49, I will not bandie with thee word for word, But buckler with thee blowes. 1603 Drayton Heroic. Ep. xiv. 45 To bandy Woe for Woe and Teare for Teare. |
II. † 7. To band together, league, confederate: a. trans. and refl. (cf. F. se bander.)
| 1597 Prayers in Liturg. Q. Eliz. (1847) 676 Our enemies..conspire and bandy themselves against us. 1632 C. Hughes Saints Losse 38 All the kings of the earth bandy themselves to fight with him. 1656 Trapp Exp. Rev. ix. 5 Antichrist and his actuaries bandy and bend all their forces to destroy souls. 1659 J. Harrington Lawgiving (1700) 397 Korah, Dathan, and Abiram..bandy'd themselves against Moses. 1818 Scott Br. Lamm. iii, Here is his son already bandying and making a faction. |
b. intr.
| 1633 G. Herbert Humil. iv. in Temple 62 Joyntly bandying, They drive them soon away. 1673 Lady's Call. ii. iii. §18 The servants..bandy into leagues and parties. 1755 Carte Hist. Eng. IV. 116 If he bandied to remove his father's servants. 1758 Jortin Erasm. I. 192 Giddy and ignorant young men..had bandied together in a body, calling themselves Trojans. |
8. intr. To contend, strive, fight. (Cf. Cotgr. ‘Se bander contre, to bandie, or oppose himselfe against.’)
| 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. i. i. 313 A Valliant sonne in-law..One, fit to bandy with thy lawlesse Sonnes. 1643 Milton Divorce ii. xxi. Wks. (1851) 122 That Law may bandy with nature, and traverse her sage motions, was an error. 1660 ― Free Commw. Wks. 1738 I. 594 Neither did the People of Rome bandy with their Senate while any of the Tarquins liv'd. 1705 Hickeringill Priest-cr. i. (1721) 55 Let them bandy against one another till I part them. |
▪ II. bandy, n.1
(ˈbændɪ)
[App. f. the vb.; but the origin of sense 5, and the order of the senses are quite uncertain.]
I. † 1. A particular way of playing at tennis, the nature of which is not now known. It does not appear from the quotations whether bandy was the same as check, i.e. the modern ‘cramped game’ of ‘touch no walls.’ Obs.
| 1578 T. N. tr. Conq. W. India 179 They play not at chases, but at bandie or at Check, that is, if the ball touch the wall, it looseth. 1607 Lingua ii. v. in Hazl. Dodsl. IX. 381 The shooting stars..Are nothing but the balls they lose at bandy. |
† 2. A stroke with a racket, a ball so struck; a ‘return’ at tennis. Obs.
| 1598 Marston Met. Pigmal. Im. i. 141 Straight with loud mouth (a bandy Sir) he cries. 1627 Drayton Agincourt (1748) 4 They such racket shall in Paris see When over line such bandies I shall drive, As that, before the set be fully done, France may perhaps into the hazard run. 1655 J. Cotgrave Wit's Interpr. 7 A bandie ho! the people crie, And so the ball takes flight. |
† 3. fig. Obs.
| 1602 Dekker Satirom. Wks. I. 243 Take this bandy with the racket of patience. 1604 Edmonds Observ. Cæsar's Comm. 21 Their factions..caused one partie to bring in Ariouistus..and the other partie, the Romaines to make good their bandy. 1638 Ford Fancies v. iii. (1811) 210 Not wronged me?..this is the bandy of a patience Beyond all sufferance. |
II. 4. A game, also called bandy-ball, in which a small ball is driven to and fro over the ground, with bent club sticks, by two sides of players; the same as hockey.
| 1693 D'Urfey Yorksh. Heiress, The prettiest fellow At bandy once and cricket. 1796 Southey Lett. Spain (1799) 133 A royal recreation similar to what boys call Bandy in England. 1822 W. Irving Braceb. Hall II. 64 Bandy-ball, trapball, wrestling, leaping. 1860 Geo. Eliot Mill on Fl. I. 77 She's only a girl—she can't play at bandy. |
5. A club bent or curved at its lower end, used for striking the ball in this game.
| 1629 T. Adams Medit. Creed Wks. 1861 III. 122 The mathematician [will not] lend his engines for wasters and bandies. 1681 R. Knox Hist. Ceylon 50 All which..carry staves in their hands like to Bandyes, the crooked end uppermost. 1850 Cricketer's Man, 24 Sending it with blows of their bandies, whizzing through the air. |
6. bandy-wicket (see quots.). dial.
| 1749 Ellis Syst. Improvem. Sheep ii. iv. 199 The bad Example of others, who..play at Bandy-wicket..on the Sabbath-Day. 1823 E. Moor Suffolk Words 14 Bandy-wicket, a game with bats, or sticks, and ball, like cricket—but with bricks..or..hats, instead of bales and stumps, for wickets. a 1825 Forby Vocab. E. Anglia (1830) I. 14 Bandy-wicket, the game of cricket. Of the several games at ball played with a bandy, that in which a ball is aimed by one player at a wicket, defended by the adversary with his bandy, must be allowed to be very appropriately called bandy-wicket. |
▪ III. bandy, n.2
(ˈbændɪ)
[a. Telugu baṇḍi, Tamil vaṇḍi.]
A carriage, bullock-carriage, buggy, or cart, used in India.
| 1761 Madras Courier 29 Sept., To be sold, an elegant new and fashionable Bandy, with copper pannels, lined with Morocco leather. 1800 Sir T. Munro Life I. 243 No wheel carriages..not even a buffalo-bandy. 1854 Stocqueler Handbk. Brit. India 109 A buggy being a one-horse vehicle..(at Madras they call it a bandy). |
▪ IV. bandy, a.
(ˈbændɪ)
[see the senses.]
1. Of legs: Curved laterally with the concavity inward. [perh. attrib. use of bandy n.1 ‘hockey-stick.’] Also used briefly for bandy-legged.
| 1687 Shadwell Juvenal x. 441 No Noble Youth with Bandy-leggs. 1727 Swift Wom. Mind Wks. 1755 IV. i. 85 Nor makes a scruple to expose Your bandy leg, or crooked nose. 1783–94 Blake Songs Innoc. Little Vagab. 12 Dame Lurch.. Would not have bandy children. 1815 Scott Guy M. xxix, A little mongrel cur, with bandy legs. |
Hence bandy-legged, a.
| 1688 Lond. Gaz. No. 2392/4 A bandy-leged splafooted elderly Man. 1849 W. Irving Crayon Misc. 233 Short and bandy-legged..his little legs curving like a pair of parentheses below his kilt. |
2. Marked with bands; cf. band n.2 10 b. [f. band n.2 + -y1.]
| 1552 Act 5–6 Ed. VI, vi. §27 Cloth..either pursie, bandie, squally by warpe or woufe. 1601 Act 43 Eliz. x. §1 Clothes..squally, cockling, bandy, light and notably faulty. |
3. Full of bands. [f. band n.3 4 + -y1.]
| 1852 Dickens Lett. I. 279 Not quite a place to my taste, being too bandy (I mean musical, no reference to its legs). |
▪ V. bandy
var. bandie.