1652 Mercurius Democritus No. 32 252 Merchants Wives..will also be very rantipoll, proud, and imperious over their Husbands.

1728 C. Cibber Vanbrugh's Provok'd Husband v. i. 77 Another rantipol Dame of Quality.

1781 G. Selwyn Let. 27 Dec. in 15th Rep. Royal Comm. Hist. MSS (1897) LXII. 553 It would not have entered the head of such farceurs as are in Opposition, or such a desperate rantipole vagabond as our Charles [Fox], to suppose he could create a bouleversement d'état.

1841 Times 9 June 4/6 Nor can it provoke the slightest astonishment that these rantipole politicians should treat any promise with scorn, and pursue any object which flatters their vanity with extreme recklessness.

1863 G. A. Sala in Temple Bar Dec. 9 I never knew such a set of rantipole maniacs.

1878 T. D. English Gasology 37 Scores of dotards, discontented, And rantipole grannies, half demented.

1970 Times 7 Jan. 9/7 Four rantipole businessmen lament the problems faced by the wolfish married man.

2006 Guardian (Nexis) 8 June (Review section) 34 Gary McDonald as his rantipole mentor, Jonathan Cullen as a jingoistic meat man and Paul Moriarty as the bent market boss all make their mark in a vast energetic cast.

1660 S. Fisher Rusticus ad Academicos iv. 192 The former part of this Rantipole Reason is refell'd before, in former parts of this book of mine.

1700 W. Congreve Way of World iv. i. 62 [To] Comport your self at this Rantipole rate.

1707 W. Wagstaffe Crispin Cobler's Confut. Ben H—dly (ed. 2) 12 She thought I had better return to it [sc. cobbling], than run after this Rantipole Way of Talk, and let them Starve at home.

1773 R. Graves Spiritual Quixote II. viii. xviii. 240 These Welsh people are all mad, I think; I never heard such rantipole doings since I was born; a body can not sleep o' nights for 'em.

1842 S. Lover Handy Andy xxiv. 212 My house is respectable..none o' your rantipole places, Sir.

1866 Hansard Commons 27 Apr. 91 But, notwithstanding all the statements that are made—notwithstanding this rantipole rhetoric—it is not true that the North of England is superior in population or property to the South.

1939 Winnipeg Free Press 6 Dec. 13/7 ‘Against stupidity the gods themselves fight in vain’... Bear this in mind the next time you hear that the authorities have done something rantipole.

1985 Financial Times (Nexis) 21 Mar. i. 14 These memoirs..reveal an unbewitching demonism, a sort of rantipole steeliness, something indeed of the actor's stage personality.

1679 T. Shadwell True Widow i. 7 My Lord Whimsey lost five Hundred, Sir Thomas Rantipol lost six Hundred, Sir Nicholas Whachum won two Hundred.

1691 T. D'Urfey Love for Money iii. ii. 36 Le Prat. Nay, nay, if you be mad, come give me de Lettra, and let me go... Amor. Why then let me tell you, Monsieur Rantipol tanto, you shall not have her Letter, nor shall you go to her neither.]

1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew Rantipole, a rude wild Boy or Girl.

1701 T. D'Urfey Bath v. iii. 55 Godb'w'e to the Change, where Rantipols range.

1764 K. O'Hara Midas i. 10 Ye rantipoles—is't thus you mind your spinning.

1790 R. Tyler Contrast iii. i. 41 There was a poor, good-natured, curse of a husband, and a sad rantipole of a wife.

1829 F. Marryat Naval Officer II. v. 150 I was always considered as a rantipole.

1879 G. F. Jackson Shropshire Word-bk. (at cited word) Whad a great rompin', rip-stitch rantipole that girld is!

1892 W. S. Gilbert Mountebanks ii. 45 I'm such a creature of habit that I find it difficult to remember that I am no longer a rantipole.

1965 O. Cargill Toward Pluralistic Crit. v. 131 He was also called a pestilential nuisance, a common scold, a rantipole, [etc.].

2004 Independent (Nexis) 11 Mar. The poet who emerges is not the Dionysiac rantipole of popular anecdote but a religious artist capable of writing 200 drafts of a single poem.

1854 A. E. Baker Gloss. Northants. Words II. 160 Rantipole, a balanced pole or plank, serving for children to play at see-saw upon.

1883 T. Lees Easther's Gloss. Dial. Almondbury & Huddersfield 107 Rantipoles, the game of see-saw. ‘Let's lake at rantipowls.’

1884 J. Hartley Halifax Clock Almanack 9 Just like slidin off th' end ov a ranty powl.

1978 Jrnl. Lancs. Dial. Soc. 27 43 [Saddleworth, Greater Manchester] Rantipow, seesaw.

1980 P. Wright Yorkshireman's Dict. at Rantypole Bairns sat on a rantypole.

1863 J. R. Wise New Forest Gloss. 285/1 Rantipole, The wild carrot..so called from its bunch of leaves.

1712 J. Arbuthnot John Bull in his Senses iv. 16 She used to Rantipole about the House, pinch the Children, kick the Servants.

1735 ‘R. Nab’ Addr. Batchelors Great Brit. 26 I may..be enabled to rantipole louder, than the Clare-market Orator, at such as dare contradict my Will.

1760 A. Murphy Way to keep Him i. 9 They whisk about the Town, and rantipole it with as unconcerned Looks, and as florid Outsides, as if they were treated at home like so many Goddesses.

1841 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 49 494 When they have once run rantipoling over the country after bullocks.

1881 C. Mathews My Awful Dad i. i. 6 One can't help thinking what a pity he can't be made to settle down quietly at home, instead of rantipoling about all night.

1917 C. B. Hudson Royal Outlaw xv. 142 A scatter-brained man..who is as like as otherwise, or more so, to rantipole off with a bellowing swarm of rascallions..courting broken pates.

1650 Impartial Scout No. 56. 242 This day divers of those called Raunters, were apprehended near White-Chappel, London... Their Ring-Leader was one Clark--- formerly an Anabaptist, and after turn'd Seeker, and now Rantipoler.

1754 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison VII. xliii They go on without rantipoling, in the ordinary course of reasonable creatures.

1825 Universal Songster I. 143/1 A vagabonding vagrant, and a rantipoling wife, We fiddles, and we limps it, through the ups and downs of life.

1887 J. T. Irving Van Gelder Papers 97 The shrill-tongued sister at home, who had set her face against vagabondizing and rantipoling of all kinds.

1947 S. H. Adams Banner by Wayside xix. 246 Those rantipoling young Corinthians from the Durham boat.