darbies

English

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

Noun

darbies

1. plural of darby

Etymology 2

Noun

darbies pl (plural only)

1. (UK, slang) handcuffs
   • 1851, Herman Melville, chapter 73, in Moby Dick‎:

     Who's afraid of him, except the old governor who daresn't catch him and put him in double-darbies, as he deserves, but lets him go about kidnapping people […]

   • 1885, Lewis Carroll, “A Tangled Tale”, in The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll, New York: Vintage, published 1976, page 1058:

     And he says, 'I'll go along quiet, Bobby,' he says, 'without the darbies,' he says.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     Second watch: (Produces handcuffs) Here are the darbies.

     Penguin, 1992, p. 592,

   • 1924, Herman Melville, chapter 26, in Billy Budd‎, London: Constable & Co.:

     Sentry, are you there? / Just ease this darbies at the wrist, and roll me over fair, / I am sleepy, and the oozy weeds about me twist.

Anagrams

• Beairds, abiders, air beds, airbeds, bardies, barside, braised, sea bird, seabird, sidebar