rugbyn.
/ˈrʌɡbi/, U.S. /ˈrəɡbi/ I. Compounds.
1.
a. attributive. Designating or relating to a form of football played with an oval ball that may be kicked, carried, and passed from hand to hand.Recorded earliest in rugby football n.Early instances refer to the game of football played at Rugby School. Later examples refer to the game played according to the rules developed at Rugby, regardless of where it is played. Now usually used without any conscious reference to Rugby School.In the game, points are scored by grounding the ball behind the opponents' try line (thereby scoring a try) or by kicking it between the two posts and over the crossbar of their goal. Rules vary between the two main forms of the game: see rugby league n. and rugby union n.
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1852 Bell's Life in London 17 Oct. 6/2 I hear that many speculations are hazarded to guess who puts these Rugby football pieces in Bell.
1864 Field 446/2 The Rugby Game. Will a good Rugby authority settle the following points in their game?
1879 Encycl. Brit. IX. 367/2 The tumbles and scrimmages incidental to the Rugby code.
1906 D. Gallaher & W. J. Stead Compl. Rugby Footballer xix. 265 There were fifty thousand people present—by far the biggest attendance of spectators we had ever seen at a Rugby match.
1922 Amer. Oxonian Oct. 205 He is prominent among Englishmen for his work on the college Rugby Team both this year and last.
1959 Times 22 Sept. 12/6 I stared at the moth-eaten Rugby jersey and shorts in bewilderment.
1976 Western Mail (Cardiff) 27 Nov. Mid-Wales Howells Cup first round rugby tie with Mid-Glamorgan..has been postponed.
2009 Fiji Times (Nexis) 12 Dec. 94 The players are requested to bring their training shoes, gym towel, pocket sulu, bula shirt, polo T-shirt, rugby boots and toiletries.
b. Forming objective and parasynthetic compounds of sense 4, as rugby-loving, rugby-minded, rugby player, etc.
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1883 Chronicle (Univ. Michigan) 20 Jan. 97/2 One of the best Rugby players who ever put his toe into the elliptical leather.
1921 Times 13 Apr. 5/4 Some undoubtedly brilliant players..deserved the admiration and thanks of the Rugby-loving public.
1959 Times 21 Sept. 3/6 In this community of Rugby-minded souls every man..could readily appreciate the virtues of an attacking as against a defensive policy.
1961 Times 7 Apr. 20/7 In the matter of crowd behaviour, in fact, the Rugby-watching public can in no way afford to be smug.
1985 Amer. Jrnl. Industr. Med. 8 403 Bacterial pyoderma may occur in wrestlers and rugby players, especially at sites of abrasion.
2007 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 10 Oct. 3 Although my rugby-playing days are over, I still enjoy watching it.
2. rugby shirt n. (a) North American a dress shirt in a style associated with Rugby School (now rare); (b) a pullover shirt worn for playing rugby, traditionally made of thick cotton and having a collar with a short row of buttons which closes at the neck; (now also) such a shirt worn as or designed for casual wear.
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the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > clothing for body or trunk (and limbs) > [noun] > shirt > types of > other
bloody shirta1586
ruffle shirt1749
ruffled shirt1754
dicky1781
overshirt1805
camise1812
mill tog1821
boiled shirt1853
Crimean shirt1853
Crimea shirt1857
shirtwaist1859
shirt1867
polo shirt1887
zephyr1887
Ghost Shirt1890
Henley1890
negligée shirt1895
turtle-neck1897
rugby shirt1902
bush shirt1909
tunic shirt1918
safari shirt1921
button-down1924
thousand-miler1929
aloha shirt1936
buba1937
zoot shirt1942
Hawaiian shirt1955
sweater-shirt1964
beach shirt1966
kimono shirt1968
dashiki1969
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > football > rugby football > [noun] > clothing
scrum cap1896
rugby shirt1902
1902 Ann. Rep. State N.Y. Comm. Lunacy 1900–1 1272 (list) Aprons, cooks'..Shirts, drill..Shirts, Rugby [etc.].
1934 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 27 Apr. 16 d/3 (advt.) Boys' Rugby Shirts, 1.65 with wide pointed collars and no neck band!
1946 Times 1 Aug. 2/3 Play which, apart from the Rugby shirts, was rather colourless.
1961 M. Beadle These Ruins are Inhabited (1963) iii. 37 The Salesman spread out an impressive..array of undershirts, underpants, knee-high wool socks..and red Rugby shirts.
2002 H. Ritchie Friday Night Club (2003) i. vii. 63 Ian looks up to see a bulky bloke in a stupidly hooped rugby shirt pointing to the adjacent chair.
3.
a. rugby tackle n. a tackle in the game of rugby in which the arms are used to bring an opposing player down; (in extended use) any act of bringing a person to the ground by means of such a tackle or similar action.
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the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > hostile action or attack > [noun] > specific types of physical attack
charge1857
shoulder charge1930
stomping1958
rugby tackle1959
piping1971
1908 School June 163/2 You find half your house more concerned with keeping abreast of the latest fashion..than in cultivating a Rugby tackle or soccer charge.
1959 F. Guest Indian Cavalryman viii. 97 The subaltern, who was an athletic young man, immediately dived at the men in a Rugby tackle.
1998 K. Sampson Extra Time 70 I fall heavily, poleaxed, slam-dunked onto the greasy turf by a hefty copper's high-velocity rugby tackle.
b. rugby-tackle v. transitive to perform a rugby tackle on (a person); to bring (a person) down by or as if by means of a rugby tackle.
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the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > hostile action or attack > make an attack upon [verb (transitive)]
assail?c1225
to set on ——c1290
saila1300
to turn one's handc1325
lashc1330
to set against ——c1330
impugnc1384
offendc1385
weighc1386
checka1400
to lay at?a1400
havec1400
to set at ——c1430
fraya1440
rehetea1450
besail1460
fray1465
tuilyie1487
assaulta1500
enterprise?1510
invade1513
sturt1513
attempt1546
lay1580
tilt1589
to fall aboard——1593
yoke1596
to let into1598
to fall foul1602
attack1655
do1780
to go in at1812
to pitch into ——1823
tackle1828
vampire1832
bushwhack1837
to go for ——1838
take1864
pile1867
volcano1867
to set about ——1879
vampirize1888
to get stuck into1910
to take to ——1911
weigh1941
rugby-tackle1967
rugger-tackle1967
1967 Times 10 Apr. 6/3 The refusal of the referee to give a penalty when Greenhoff was blatantly Rugby-tackled by Dowd.
1982 S. Townsend Secret Diary Adrian Mole 54 My father rugby-tackled him by the laurel bush.
2003 C. Lewis Dict. Playground Slang 266 One person tries to rugby tackle one of the other players.
II. Simple uses.
4. The game of rugby football.On the origins, development, and rules of rugby, see sense 1a.The simple form is used to refer to either rugby league or rugby union, depending on the context. In general, however, and esp. in certain regions, such as Australia, it is more often understood as referring to the game played according to the union code, with rugby league denominated in full, or by the terms league or football. Cf. rugby league n., rugby union n.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > football > rugby football > [noun]
football1863
rugby1870
rugby football1882
rugger1889
footy1900
1870 Bell's Life in London 29 Jan. 7/4 Amongst those clubs which play ‘Rugby’ pure and simple, we may mention..Woolwich Academy and Sandhurst Military College, [etc.].
1880 Chronicle (Univ. Michigan) 16 Oct. 28/2 Every student in the University is requested and urged to come out and play Rugby from two to four in the afternoon.
1930 J. Buchan Castle Gay i. 9 Rugby in my opinion is not a game for Christians. It's fair savagery.
1977 Western Mail (Cardiff) 5 Mar. 18/5 Modern rugby is a game of pressure and most of this is upon the halves, from set pieces and loose play.
1988 W. Hutchings Plays of David Storey i. 12 He continued to play rugby for Leeds, commuting by train for the matches.
2003 Sunday Tel. (Nexis) 28 Dec. 7 Rugby was dismissed as a public school affectation, as a game played by men with funny-shaped balls.
5. The playing of the game of rugby; the game played to a specified standard or in a specified way.
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1885 Chronicle (Univ. Michigan) 9 May 297/1 There will be no ‘Rugby’ to-day, as the Universities objected to the rules by which the opposing nine desired to play.
1908 Badminton Mag. Dec. 638 Under the delusion that they can play good Rugby without any training during the week.
1960 V. Jenkins Lions Down Under xii. 173 The accepted New Zealand pattern for match-winning rugby.
1976 Alyn & Deeside Observer 10 Dec. 3/7 In the second half..Chester played some excellent rugby.
2006 Heat 18 Mar. 17/1 He's getting more column inches for being her boyfriend than for his rugby.
Derivatives
ˈrugbyist n. a player of or enthusiast for rugby.
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1906 Manitoba Free Press 6 Oct. 6/2 (heading) Rough Rider rugbyist on the Winnipeg team to meet the Oarsmen.
1934 Canad. Florist 29 313/2 [He] was a prominent rugbyist until an accident forced him to join the cheering squad.
2006 South Wales Evening Post (Nexis) 3 Nov. 54 This column is meant to inject a little girly humour to a predominantly male orientated sport without getting a tongue lashing from the hardcore rugbyists if I get something wrong.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1852