darby, n.² — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

darby n.²

[16C SE Father Darby’s bands, a moneylender’s bond of particular severity, which effectively bound the borrower to the lender while the debt remained outstanding]

1. usu. in pl., shackles, fetters, handcuffs; thus darbies and joans, fetters linking a pair of prisoners; darby-ringer, a villain [for ety. for darbies and joans, see darby and joan n.].

[1592		Greene Quip for an Upstart Courtier C3: They tie the poore soule in such Darbies bandes [...] and dub him sir John bad lands].
1676		A Newgate ex-prisoner A Warning for House-Keepers 5: But when we come to the Whitt, / Our darbies to behold / And for to take our Penitency, / And boose the water cold.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Darbys c. Irons, Shackles or Fetter.
1703		Hell Upon Earth 5: Darbies, Fetters.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 204: Darbies, irons, shackles, or fetters.
1724		‘Frisky Moll’s Song’ J. Thurmond Harlequin Sheppard 22: He broke thro’ all Rubbs in the Whitt, / And chiv’d his Darbies in twain.
1754		G. Stevens ‘A Cant Song’ Muses Delight 177: The darbies I dread not, death’s common to all, / That rumble in rattlers or pad the Mall.
1768		(con. 1710–25) Tyburn Chronicle II in Groom (1999) xxix: Darbies Fetters.
1781–2		J. Messink Choice of Harlequin I viii: Ye scamps, ye pads, ye divers, and all upon the lay [...] Rattling up your darbies, come hither at my call.
c.1790		‘Lord Altham’s Bull’ in Walsh Ireland Ninety Years Ago (1885) 88: Oh! cruel Coffey, glory to you, just knock off my darbies.
1790		‘Bumper Allnight. Esquire’ Honest Fellow 111: To those that down in the whit, (a) / Rattling their darbies (b) with pleasure; / Who laugh at the rum culls (c) they’ve bit, / And are now snacking their treasure. (a) Newgate. (b) Bolts, or fetters. (c) Rich Fools that can be easily cheated, or are generous to a w—e.
c.1800		‘Blue Lion’ in Holloway & Black I (1975) 32: The darbies too they try on.
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 77: Thus a new set of darbies, when first they are worn, / Makes the Jail-bird uneasy, though splendid their ray.
1821		D. Haggart Autobiog. 76: I set to work and cut the darbies off my legs.
1821–5		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 8: The fellow’s a regular drilled darby-ringer after all!
1829		Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) I 127: Here is a darby cutter (one skilled in cutting off his chains) who has travelled before with us .
1831		N.Y. Eve. Post 11 July 2/6: On being taken to the cage again, that terror of evil doers, Jacob Hays, put the Darbies on him, by way of splints for his wrist.
1834		(con. 1737–9) W.H. Ainsworth Rookwood (1857) 179: I slipped my darbies one morn in May.
1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 206: How my bowman he snivelled away, o, / How he broke off all the dubbs in the whitt, / And chivied the darbies in twain, o.
1848		Ladies’ Repository (N.Y.) Oct. VIII:37 316/1: Darbies, Manacles; fetters; irons.
1851		‘Greenhorn’ [G. Thompson] Bristol Bill 25/1: ‘I can slip my darbies’ — and [...] , he dexterously twisted his hands, and the iron cuffs dropped from his wrists.
1856		C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend 1 190: Oh, I’m dark, sir [...] he won’t know me till I put the darbies on him.
1861		Vanity Fair (N.Y.) 9 Nov. 216: Pinch all the swag and put the darbies on each nigger.
1863		T. Taylor Ticket-Of-Leave Man IV ii: When Jem Dalton planted his tools, he never thought they’d come up darbies.
1873		W.H. Thomes Bushrangers 238: Let me out of these ’ere darbies, and then we can have some fun with the old feller.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 60: This was my first acquaintance with the ‘Darbies,’ the first time I had ever been deprived of the free use of my hands.
1880		Henley & Stevenson Deacon Brodie III tab.V iv: Suppose we introduce our wrists into these here darbies?
1880		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 16 Oct. 11/3: ‘The darbies’ were taken from his wrists.
1886		Graphic (London) 30 Jan. 23/1: ‘Darbies’ is a very old cant term for handcuffs [...] when they were used to attach one prisoner to another they were called ‘Darbies and Joans’.
1894		‘Price Warung’ Tales of the Early Days 189: I’ll do for any man who forces the darbies on me!
1899		E.W. Hornung Amateur Cracksman (1992) 130: I’ll just be clappin’ the darbies on these young sparks.
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 17 Nov. 101: You’ve got to ‘ave the darbies on, my fine fellows.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 31 Jan. 1/1: The occasion is the appearance of the ‘gaol-breakers and Handcuff kings’ [and] a large population of Perth will therefore attend to learn how to dodge the darbies.
1906		A.H. Lewis Confessions of a Detective 209: In fewer than forty-eight hours you clap the darbies on the murderer.
1910		Marvel 15 Jan. 11: He brought a pair of darbies into view.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 441: second watch: (Produces handcuffs.) Here are the darbies.
1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 252: First time they’ve ever left the darbies on me when I’ve been in the cell.
1949		Wodehouse Mating Season 173: It is his dearest wish to see the darbies clapped on him.
1950		S.J. Baker in Sun. Herald (Sydney) 8 June 9/5: Other English incorporations [in Australian slang] include: [...] ‘darbies,’ handcuffs.
1958		F. Norman Bang To Rights 60: They screwed a screw or something inside the darbies.
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 175: It was the sort of sniff Sherlock Holmes would have sniffed when about to clap the darbies on the chap.
1989		(con. 1950s–60s) in G. Tremlett Little Legs 193: darbies handcuffs.

2. in pl. in fig. use, anything that shackles one.

1821–6		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 333: The never-ending darbies of matrimony.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak 47: Darbies [...] the iron clad terms of a money lender.

3. in pl., sausages.

1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1852		Kendal Mercury 3 Apr. 6/2: Ye should [...] twig him spreading his legs when he’s hooking it with a duea [sic] of darbies (sausages) from a cat’s-meat-shop (eating house) .

In compounds

darby-cove (n.) [cove n. (1)]

(UK Und.) a blacksmith; thus darby crib, darby ken, a smithy.

1848

Ladies’ Repository (N.Y.) Oct. VIII:37 316/1: Darby Ken, or Crib, A blacksmith’s shop. Darby Cove, A Blacksmith.

darby roll (n.)

a style of walking that betrays an individual’s experience of fetters and thus time spent in prison.

1823

‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.

darby’s fair (n.) (also darbies fair)

the day on which a prisoner is moved from one prison to another, and must thus be fettered.

a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: darbies fair removing day at Newgate.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1821		Flash Dict.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 11: Darby’s fair – the day when felons are removed to Newgate for trial.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

darby n.2

In compounds

darby n.²