quisby

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English

Etymology

Uncertain; perhaps quiz +‎ -by, or from queer or Queer Street (“difficult circumstances”).

Noun

quisby (plural quisbies)

  1. (slang, obsolete) A wretch; an idle person.

Adjective

quisby (comparative more quisby, superlative most quisby)

  1. (UK, slang, archaic) Mean; destitute; strange.
  2. (UK, slang, archaic) In difficult circumstances; in trouble.
    • 1874, Arthur Sketchley, Mrs. Brown and Disraeli, page 151:
      he told me as things was a-goin' werry quisby with 'em Wilkses. I says, "I'm sorry for 'er, but he's a party I don't 'old with, as in my opinion deserves to want, only but for others as would want with 'im."
      She says, "He's been and got 'isself in a 'ole with them books as he've been lewanted with, and will get two years over it, they say," and so he did, […]
  3. (UK, slang, archaic) Drunk; tipsy.
    • 1889, Belgravia, volume 70, page 15:
      " […] Did you know that my husband came home intoxicated?"
      Mrs. Brown laughed.
      "Oh, not so bad as that, surely! Only a little 'screwed.' George was 'quisby,' too. But then its Christmas, you know."

References

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