toddle v.
1. to move, to walk, to go or leave; thus toddling n.
Tea-table Misc. (1733) II 154: When todlen hame, todlen hame, When round as a neep ye come todlen hame. [Ibid.] 454: Todlen, a rolling short step. | ||
Life (1906) II 463: I should like to come and have a cottage in your park, toddle about, live mostly on milk and be taken care of by Mrs. Boswell. | in Boswell||
Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn). | ||
Fudge Family in Paris letter III 26: Here toddles along some old figure of fun. | ||
Life in St George’s Fields 9: Away they toddled, and in a few minutes were within the strong wall. | ||
‘The Slap-Up Cracksman’ in Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 42: Then lush — and throw the cat out light, / And toddle with your mot. | ||
Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) Aug. 31 n.p.: ‘My dear come lets toddle’. | ||
Punch 17 July I 7: Saying which, I toddled off for Wellington-street. | ||
Bell’s Life in Sydney 18 Nov. 3/3: No sooner had she entered the shop than a young lady requested her ‘to cut her stick and toddle’. | ||
Life and Recollections of Yankee Hill 82: Just as the coach was leaving, the old lady toddled up to the coach door and called out to Mr. Hill. | ||
Young Tom Hall (1926) 182: I s’pose we must shut up — we must be toddlin’ homewards. | ||
Wild Boys of London I 157/1: Let’s toddle horf at wonce, helse we shall have to wait for the second ’ouse. | ||
Lays of Ind (1905) 173: With the help of his bearer, to bed he would toddle. | ||
Five Years’ Penal Servitude 247: She toddled along as if there was nothing but herself inside her togs. | ||
Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Feb. 6/2: He had seen all the great actors from the time he could toddle to Drury Lane or Covent Garden. | ||
Fifty ‘Bab’ Ballads 63: A month from to-day / Is as long as I’ll stay – / Then I’d wish, if you please, for to toddle away. | ‘The Precocious Baby’||
Dead Bird (Sydney) 22 Nov. 5/3: ‘You rorty ass,’ the Hartist said; ‘Now toddle;’ / I’ve just engaged Miss Horo as a model’. | ||
🎵 She’d suspicions in her noddle, off to Brum that night did toddle. | [perf. Vesta Tilley] Only a Pair of Shoes||
Overland Monthly (CA) May 483: I must toddle up to Freeman’s and look after my boxes. | ||
Down the Line 41: His three-year-old toddled down the aisle and grabbed him by the coat-tail. | ||
Society Snapshots 69: The Gardenia: Come out and have a cigarette. The Carnation. Thanks, I’m toddling. | ||
Bulletin Reciter 1880-1901 201: Suppose you must be toddling, if you promised Kate. | ||
Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 107: Guess I’ll toddle into the sleeper and get a snooze. | ||
Gem 17 Oct. 19: Then suppose you toddle along, and don’t interfere with me! | ||
‘The Old Master’ in Bulletin 4 Aug. 13/1: And he toddles up to Mitchell. ‘Here,’ says he, ‘gimme that whip.’. | ||
Dubliners (1956) 175: Kate and Julia came toddling down the dark stairs at once. | ‘The Dead’||
Shorty McCabe on the Job 52: ‘I’m an hour late at the Boomer Days’ as it is.’ ‘Then toddle along,’ says I. | ||
On the Anzac Trail 59: I toddled in by way of a row of butchers’ booths and fruitsellers’ stalls. | ||
Butterfly and Firefly 23 Nov. 8: He threw the photo at me and toddled off. | ||
My Man Jeeves [ebook] ‘Ripping! I’ll be toddling up, then. Toodle-oo, Bertie, old man’. | ‘Jeeves and the Hard-Boiled Egg’ in||
Arrowsmith 251: Well, ta, ta, be good; gotta toddle along. | ||
Carry on, Jeeves 12–13: It wasn’t till nearly four that he toddled out of the library with the parcel under his arm, put it on the table, and toddled off again. | ||
(con. WWI) Flesh in Armour 265: ‘I must toddle; good-bye’. | ||
Film Fun 8 Sept. 1: He toddled forward and grabbed hold of one or two of those boxes [...] Off he toddled with the damsel. | ||
Send for Paul Temple (1992) 153: ‘Oh, well,’ he said, ‘I must be toddling!’. | ||
in These Are My People (1957) 145: I could see the best thing I could do was toddle, so I rolled up and snatched it. | ||
Swag, the Spy and the Soldier in Lehmann Penguin New Writing No. 26 35: Little Eva, his daughter, aged two, toddled in from the passage. | ||
Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 157: Aunt Dahlia’s butler, who came toddling in. | ||
Look Long Upon a Monkey 213: You won’t think me rude if I toddle along? | ||
Billy Bunter at Butlins 172: Toddle along for one of those chairs, if you want one. | ||
Burnt Ones 163: Where have the old boys toddled off to? | ||
Best Man To Die (1981) 12: Let’s be toddling, Jack. | ||
Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 84: The green van toddling along at a steady forty. | ||
An English Madam 95: He just toddles off to another room. | ||
Paydirt [ebook] ‘Well, if you’ve finished for the day you might as well toddle off home’. | ||
Guardian G2 11 Oct. 5: We watch him pick up the hat and toddle off. | ||
Cartoon City 222: ‘There’s drinks tonight in the Nerve to celebrate. Are you coming?’ [...] ‘I suppose I’ll toddle along.’. | ||
Cherry Pie [ebook] ‘Toddled off down Fitzroy Street’. | ||
(ref. to 1971) Homeless in my Heart 182: [The judge] sends the jury out to brood / And toddles off for his port... | ‘Old Bailey’||
Killing Pool 18: Terry Connolly will toddle off to the loo. |
2. (UK Und.) to bring before.
‘Poll Tomkinson’ in Convivialist in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 14: For the robin by a red breast he vos took avay / [...] / And afore the Beak vos toddled next day. |
In derivatives
exciting [i.e. that which is always ‘on the move’].
You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 9: In the 70s [...] Sydney was a real toddlin’ town. |