bandy1
/ˈbandi
/adjective (bandier, bandiest) (also bandy-legged)
1(Of a person’s legs) curved outwards so that the knees are wide apart: she had bent, slightly bandy legs...
- Back then, the pale, scrawny 14-year-old with bandy legs and crooked teeth was as far removed from the healthy, sporty look epitomised by Cindy Crawford and Elle MacPherson as you could get.
- His hips and his bandy legs, which seem unusually long from knee to ankle, move with a stiffness which suggests that his joints are about to seize up.
- He's a skinny little hillbilly Jesus with bandy legs and close-set eyes and a clever, foxy face.
1.1(Of a person) having bandy legs: he was short, bandy, and obese...
- But come showtime it'll be buzzing and Sylla, as he ambles towards me on the pitchside track, cuts an impressive (if slightly bandy - legged) figure.
- I'm all stiff and bandy legged, like a pensioner.
- With his cane, his downcast eyes, and bandy legged gait, he is the antithesis of Hollywood muscle-bound steroid cases.
Origin
Late 17th century: perhaps from obsolete bandy 'curved stick used in hockey'.
Rhymes
bandy2
/ˈbandi/verb (bandies, bandying, bandied) [with object] (usually be bandied about/around)
Pass on or discuss (an idea or rumour) in a casual or uninformed way: £40,000 is the figure that has been bandied about...
- Such ideas have been bandied about for decades, even before the first oil boom of the 1970s.
- Internet broadcasting was one of the big ideas bandied around during the dot-com boom in the late 1990s.
- National's Maori member has earned the opportunity to at least be associated with the rumours that are being bandied around this House in relation to the leadership change.
Synonyms
spread (about/around), put about, toss about, discuss, rumour;
circulate, disseminate, communicate, purvey, diffuse, broadcast, publicize, make public, make known, pass on, propagate, promulgate, announce, give out, repeat
literary bruit about/abroad
Phrases
bandy words
Origin
Late 16th century (in the sense 'pass a ball to and fro'): perhaps from French bander 'take sides at tennis', from bande 'band, crowd' (see band2).
bandy3
/ˈbandi/noun [mass noun]
1A game similar to field hockey or ice hockey, played with a ball and large curved sticks.
1.1 [count noun] (plural bandies) The curved stick used in the game of bandy.
Origin
Late 17th century: perhaps from bandy2.