duck and draken.

Etymology: < the motion of the stone over the watery surface.

a. A pastime consisting in throwing a flat stone or the like over the surface of water so as to cause it to rebound or skip as many times as possible before sinking. Chiefly in to make a duck and drake, to play (at) duck and drake. (Often in plural.)

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > children's game > other children's games > [noun] > stone-throwing games

duck and drake1585

dust-point1611

duck1821

duck's-off1888

knicker1900

1585 J. Higgins tr. Junius Nomenclator A kind of sport or play with an oister shell or stone throwne into the water, and making circles yer it sinke, etc. It is called a ducke and a drake, and a halfe-penie cake.

c1626 Dick of Devonshire (1955) 174 Y^e poorest ship Boy might on y^e Thames make duckes & drakes w^th pieces of Eight, fetchd out of Spayne.

1730 J. Swift Vindic. Ld. C—— 21 Scipio and Lelius..often play'd at Duck and Drake with smooth Stones on a River.

1829 Nat. Philos. (Libr. Useful Knowl.) I. Hydrostatics i. 2 The common play of making ducks and drakes, that is, throwing a flat stone in a direction nearly horizontal against a surface of water, and thus making it rebound, proves the water to be elastic.

1842 Peter Parley's Ann. 15 A shot made a duck-and-drake in the water.

b. attributive, as duck-and-drake fashion, duck-and-drake sort.

1858 A. W. Drayson Sporting Scenes S. Afr. 304 Sometimes with a duck and drake sort of progression they [fish] skipped along over the top of the pool.

1893 Boy's Own Paper Jan. 183/2 A cannon ball..came Skipping at a long range over the water ‘duck and drake’ fashion.

a. figurative. In phrases: to make ducks and drakes of or with, to play (at) duck and drake with: to throw away idly or carelessly; to play idly with; to handle or use recklessly; to squander.

ΘΠ

the mind > possession > relinquishing > squandering or prodigality > squander [verb (transitive)]

forspendc893

scatter1154

dispend1303

waste1340

misspendc1390

miswastec1400

consumec1425

waste1474

profund1527

lasha1535

prodige1538

lavish1542

to play away1562

riot1566

embezzle1578

dilapidate1590

squander1593

confound1598

to make ducks and drakes of or withc1600

prodigalize1611

profuse1611

squander1611

paddle1616

bezzle1617

to run out of ——1622

to piss away1628

prodigal1628

decoct1629

to bangle (away)1632

debauch1632

deboise1632

to fribble away1633

to fool out1635

to run outa1640

to fiddle away1667

slattera1681

dissipate1682

to play off1693

duck-and-drake1700

liquidate1702

sparkle away1703

waster1821

befool1861

to frivol away1866

to play (at) duck and drake with1872

to fling away1873

mislive1887

slather1904

mucker1928

profligate1938

peter1956

spaff2002

c1600 Timon (1980) v. v. 83 I will make duckes & drakes with this my golde..Before your fingers touch a piece thereof.

a1774 A. Tucker Light of Nature Pursued (1777) III. ii. 34 A miser has it in his power to make ducks and drakes of his guineas.

1810 Duke of Wellington Dispatches (1837) VII. 32 His Majesty's Government never intended to give over the British army to the Governors of this Kingdom to make ducks and drakes with.

1872 Ld. Tennyson Last Tournament in Gareth & Lynette 111 Ye..grew So witty that ye play'd at ducks and drakes With Arthur's vows.

1883 R. L. Stevenson Treasure Island i. vi. 52 Finding the..money to..play duck and drake with ever after.

b. Idle play, reckless squandering.

ΘΠ

the mind > possession > relinquishing > squandering or prodigality > [noun]

overflowingnessOE

wastinga1300

prodigality1340

misdispendingc1390

misspendingc1390

fool-largessec1405

wantonness1448

fool-largec1450

dilapidationc1460

lavish1483

consuminga1538

profusion1545

sumptuosity1550

wastefulness1551

lashing1556

lavishing1574

profuseness1584

lavishness1590

misspense1591

wastening1604

outlashing1611

duck and drake1614

largesse1614

lavishment1630

squandering1632

prodigence1634

dissipation1639

wastry1645

profusiveness1655

high living1656

nepotation1656

extravagancy1666

extravagance1727

profligacy1792

squander1806

profligateness1817

wastrife1818

spendthriftism1862

wasterfulness1884

high-rolling1890

prodigalism1896

spendthriftiness1950

squanderbugging1966

1614 J. Cooke Greene's Tu Quoque in W. C. Hazlitt Dodsley's Sel. Coll. Old Eng. Plays (1875) XI. 212 This royal Cæsar doth regard no cash; Has thrown away as much in ducks and drakes As would have bought some 50,000 capons.

a1678 A. Marvell Char. Holland in Misc. Poems (1681) 112 Nature..Would throw their Land away at Duck and Drake.

Derivatives

duck-and-drake v. (transitive) to make ‘ducks and drakes’ of; to throw away idly.

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