English

Verb

bandy ‎(third-person singular simple present bandies, present participle bandying, simple past and past participle bandied).

1. To give and receive reciprocally; to exchange.

   to bandy words (with somebody)

2. To use or pass about casually.
   • 1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 4, in Well Tackled!:

     Technical terms like ferrite, perlite, graphite, and hardenite were bandied to and fro, and when Paget glibly brought out such a rare exotic as ferro-molybdenum, Benson forgot that he was a master ship-builder, […]

   to have one's name bandied about (or around)

   • I. Watts

     Let not obvious and known truth be bandied about in a disputation.

3. To throw or strike reciprocally, like balls in sports.
   • 1663, Hudibras, by Samuel Butler, part 1, canto 2

     For as whipp'd tops and bandied balls, / The learned hold, are animals; / So horses they affirm to be / Mere engines made by geometry […]

   • Cudworth

     like tennis balls bandied and struck upon us […] by rackets from without

Translations

Etymology 2

From Scots bandy

Adjective

bandy ‎(comparative bandier, superlative bandiest)

1. Bowlegged, or bending outward at the knees; as in bandy legged.
   • 1794, William Blake, The Little Vagabond, third stanza

     Then the Parson might preach, and drink, and sing, / And we’d be as happy as birds in the spring; / And modest Dame Lurch, who is always at church, / Would not have bandy children, nor fasting, nor birch.

   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty, Bloomsbury, 2005, Chapter 7,

     There was an old man drying near them, squat and bandy and brown all over, and Nick remembered him from last year […]

Translations

Etymology 3

Possibly from the Welsh word bando most likely derived from the Proto-Germanic *bandją ‎(“a curved stick”).

Noun

bandy ‎(uncountable)

1. (sports) A winter sport played on ice, from which ice hockey developed.
2. A club bent at the lower part for striking a ball at play; a hockey stick.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Johnson to this entry?)

Translations

Etymology 4

Telugu

Noun

bandy ‎(plural bandies)

1. A carriage or cart used in India, especially one drawn by bullocks.

Scots

Adjective

bandy ‎(not comparable)

1. Bowlegged, or bending outward at the knees; as in bandy legged.

Noun

bandy ‎(plural bandies)

1. A minnow; a stickleback.

Alternative forms

• baanie
• bandie

References

• “bandy” in Dictionary of the Scots Language, Scottish Language Dictionaries, Edinburgh"