| 释义 |
ˈhandy-ˈdandy, n. or advb. phr.
Also handy-bandy, -pandy, -spandy.
[A riming jingle on hand, or its childish diminutive handy.]
A. n.
1. a. A children's game in which a small object is shaken between the hands by one of the players, and, the hands being suddenly closed, the other player is required to guess in which hand the object remains.
The transferred use in sense 3 implies that the child's play was known before that date.
1585Higins tr. Junius' Nomenclator 297/2 s.v. Arteres, The play called handie dandie. 1598Florio, Bazzichiare, to shake between two hands, to play handy-dandy. 1601Deacon & Walker Answ. Darel 73 A little yong child playing at handie dandie happely..to make choise of that hand, wherein the pin or the point is placed. 1622Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d' Alf. I. ii. ii. 112, I learned to play at Cock-All, at Handy-Pandy, and at Nine-holes [à la taba, al palmo y al hoyuelo]. a1764Lloyd Cobbler of Cripplegate 103. 1801 Strutt Sports & Past. iv. iv. 349. 1847–78 Halliwell s.v., He whirls his hands round each other, crying, ‘Handy-spandy, Jack-a-dandy, which good hand will you have?’ 1887S. Cheshire Gloss., Handy-Bandy, the name of a game. A person conceals an object in one of his two closed hands, and invites his companion to tell which hand contains the object in the following words: Handy-Bandy, sugar-candy, Which hand wun yo have?
b. to play handy-dandy. Often fig.
1579Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 319/2 Yet these mates will come hither and play handidandy. c1585R. Browne Answ. Cartwright 2 Master Cartwright would playe at handie dandie with vs, and yet not giue vs that hand which we doe choose. 1683Williams Answ. Hunt's Postscr. 20 All the Arts and Acts of Parliament afterwards, which..played handy-dandy with the Crown. 1862Carlyle Fredk. Gt. viii. v. (1865) III. 46 You cannot play handy-dandy with a King's Crown, your Majesty! say his new Ministers.
c. The words used, as in the game, in offering a choice, or when it is indifferent which of two things is chosen; = ‘Choose which you please’.
1598Chapman Bl. Begg. Plays 1873 I. 16 Why loe heere we are both, I am in this hand, and hee is in that, handy dandy, prickly prandy, which hand will you haue. 1605Shakes. Lear iv. vi. 157 Change places, and handy-dandy, which is the Iustice, which is the theefe? 1687Settle Refl. Dryden 51 The expression is so excellent in either sense that Handy Dandy, 'tis no matter which you choose. 1965New Statesman 3 Dec. 879/3 Change places, handy-dandy and the tone..could almost be Peter Simple on Dr. Castrumba. 1966Ibid. 15 Apr. 539/3 Handy-dandy, which is the Underground Man and which is the complacent bourgeois?
†2. Transposition, shifting, as from hand to hand.
1615E. Hoby Curry-combe iii. 110 But is not heere olde handy pandy, when sentences shall be tossed from one place to another, without the Authors aduise?
†3. Something held or offered in the closed hand; a covert bribe or present. Obs.
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. iv. 61 Wro[n]g þenne vppon Wisdom wepte to helpe Him for his handidandi Rediliche he payede [1377 B. iv. 75 Thanne wowed wronge wisdome ful ȝerne, To make his pees with his pens handi-dandi payed. 1393C. v. 68 On men of lawe wrong lokede and largelich hem profrede, And for to haue of here help handy-dandy payede.]
B. Adverbially. With change of places; alternately, in rapid alternation.
a1529Skelton Sp. Parrot 176 Donatus be dryven out of schole, Prisians hed broken, now handy dandy And inter didascolos, is reckoned for a fole. 1679R. L'Estrange Answ. to Appeal fr. Country to City 20 These people..can set Governors and Subjects handy-dandy to Box one another like Punchinello's Puppets, when they please. |