trilby n.
1. (US) a foot, thus trilby case, a shoe; note cite 1900 (US) suggests size rather than beauty.
People 7 July in (1909) 250/1: Having exhausted palmistry an American paper has spent its energy of psychological investigation on the foot (I beg pardon, the trilby), but a rival comes out with a page of illustrated description of the mouth. | ||
🎵 Only a pair of shoes / Number twelves with leather laces, just a pair of Trilby cases . | [perf. Vesta Tilley] Only a Pair of Shoes||
Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 10 Oct. 1/1: How will Mossy Isaacs perform when he has to shuffle his corn-covered trilbies over the A.J.C. gravel patch. | ||
Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 21 Apr. 6/1: Trilby Foot Gave Her Away. The extremely large foot of a female burglar [etc]. | ||
Truth (Sydney) 6 Apr. 5/4: In another moment she grabbed the ‘trilby case,’ CAUGHT ADA BY THE HAIR, and banged and belted her with the heel end. | ||
Marvel III:60 5: Bring up my boots! Do you tink I’m going to walk all ober de sloshy streets of London wid my bare trilbies. | ||
Sun. Times (Perth) 29 Apr. 4/7: She immediately proceeded to kick holes in another bye-law by placing her trilbies on the opposite cushion. | ||
N.Z. Truth 16 Jan. 6/2: [She] raised her right trilby and kicked him violence on the spine. | ||
Sport (Adelaide) 25 Sept. 5/6: Have you ever heard the story of Jim L’s feet? Steamrollers [...] are never needed when we have Jim L’s trilby’s. | ||
Marvel 21 Aug. 13: Thee won’t like my clogs on thy trilbies! | ||
(con. 1870s) Manhattan Kaleidoscope 83: For a while after the publication of DuMaurier’s Trilby, ladies feet were archly referred to as ‘trilbies.’. |
2. (US) a cooked pig’s foot.
Sun (NY) 28 Mar. 2/6: ‘Gimme a Trilby foot’ means ‘Pass me a fried pig’s foot’. The same deasire is expressed in a request for a ‘grunter’ or a ‘squealer’. |