dandy
Like a dandy, foppish.
Adjective
- Like a dandy, foppish.
Synonyms: beauish buckish coxcombical dandiacal dandified dandy dandyish dandyistic dudish foppish foppy Jemmy-Jessamy lily-handed macaronic swellish Woosterian
- Very good; better than expected but not as good as could be.
- That's all fine and dandy, but how much does it cost?
Synonyms: all very well well and good
- Excellent; first-rate.
- What a dandy little laptop you have.
- Grip Sures are dandy shoes for anything that comes along. Hiking, climbing, canoeing, around camp or in the gym — you can't have anything better. - 1924, Boys' Life, page 27:
- Its gonna be just dandy / The day I take my Candy / And make him mine all mine - 1945, Mack David, Alex C Kramer, Joan Whitney, “Candy”, performed by Nat King Cole:
Synonyms: ace admirable amazing awe-inspiring awesome badass bang on bang-up studly based beatific beneship bitching blissful bomb brilliant bully celestial cher choice chronic chur cock on commendable
Origin
Borrowed from Scots dandy (“a fop; one who is well-dressed”). Of uncertain origin. Possibly from Dandy, a diminutive of Andrew, yet the Scots word is used also in reference to women. Alternatively, possibly a back-formation of Scots dandilly, dandillie (“one who is spoiled or pampered; a "pet"”). Compare English dandle and dander.
Forms
Derived
dandily dandiness dandy as candy dandy-horse dandy horse dandy roll dandy-roll dandy-roller dandy shandy dandy stick dandy up fine and dandy fine and dandy like sour candy handy dandy handy-dandy jack-a-dandy jim dandy jim-dandy
Noun Entry 2
- A man very concerned about his physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance in a cult of self.
- The gallant young Indian dandy at home on furlough — immense dandies these — chained and moustached — driving in tearing cabs, the pillars of the theatres, living at West End Hotels, — […] - 1847 January – 1848 July,...
- No town-bred dandy will compare with a country-bred one—I mean a downright bumpkin dandy–a fellow that, in the dog-days, will mow his two acres in buckskin gloves for fear of tanning his hands. - 1851 November 14,...
- “Gerald Croft is an attractive chap about thirty, rather too manly to be a dandy but very much the easy well-bred young man-about-town.” - 1945, J. B. Priestley, chapter I, in An Inspector Calls:
- Something excellent in its class.
- A yawl, or a small after-sail on a yawl.
- A dandy roller.
- A small glass of whisky.
- Somebody quite as notorious as Brummell, but whose follies have been far more mischievous; whose eloquence is great, but certainly not always refined; and to whose health many a dandy of whisky has been tossed off. -...
- A horse-drawn railway carriage used on some branch lines.
- Other notable instances of horse-drawn vehicles for passenger services were the dandies used on the two-mile branch to Inchture of the Perth-Dundee line of the Caledonian Railway […], and the 2½-mile branch of the North...
Forms
Synonyms
barbermonger beau blade blood buck carpet knight cockscomb dandy dike dood dude dudelet exquisite fashionable fast man fine gentleman fop foretop fribble gallant go jack-a-dandy Jemmy-Jessamy jetter
Antonyms
Hypernyms
Hyponyms
Related
boulevardier man about town beautiful man flirt sensualist foppish idler
Derived
apple dandy dandification dandify dandizette dandy brush dandy cart dandydom dandyess dandy fever dandyish dandyism dandyize dandy line dandyling dandy roller
Noun India
- A boatman, a rower.
- Our Dandees (or boatmen) boyled their rice. - 1685 January 6, William Hedges, Diary, Vol. I, p. 175
- A Shaiva mendicant who carries a small rod.
- ...the Dandis, distinguished by carrying a small dand or wand... - 1862, Henry Beveridge, A Comprehensive History of India..., volume II, page 74:
- An open sedan chair formed by suspending a rudimentary frame or strong cloth from a pole or set of poles.
- 1870, Constance Frederica Gordon-Cumming, Good Words, p. 135:
- As the darkness closed in... I had to give up the attempt to use the dandy, and struggle on on foot.
- Major Battye and Captain Urmston joined the rear and placed the wounded man in a dandy. - 1888 July 2, Times, page 5:
Origin
From Hindi डंडी (ḍaṇḍī, “rod, pole”), from Sauraseni Prakrit 𑀟𑀁𑀟𑀺𑀕𑀸 (ḍaṃḍigā), from Sanskrit दण्डिका (daṇḍikā), from दण्ड (daṇḍa) + -इका (-ikā).
Forms
Synonyms
andor jampan barbermonger beau blade blood buck carpet knight cockscomb dandy dike dood dude dudelet exquisite fashionable fast man fine gentleman fop foretop fribble gallant go jack-a-dandy
Antonyms
Hypernyms
Hyponyms
Related
dandy-wallah randy-dandy beautiful man flirt sensualist foppish idler