Also 7 cuddie, & cuddee. [Of uncertain origin. Yule and Burnell disclaim an Oriental origin; they compare 16th c. Du. kaiûte, mod.Du. kajuit, used in same sense.]
1. Naut. A room or cabin in a large ship abaft and under the round-house, in which the officers and cabin-passengers take their meals.
In 18th c. ‘a sort of cabin or cook-room in the fore-part or near the stern of a lighter or barge’ (Falconer); the small cabin of a boat.
1660. Pepys, Diary, 14 May. My Lord went up in his nightgown into the cuddy, to see how to dispose thereof for himself.
1725. Dudley, in Phil. Trans., XXXIII. 264. Another [boat] has had the Stem, or Stern-post … cut off smooth above the Cuddee.
1844. Regul. & Ord. Army, 365. If the quarter-deck be carried, the Men on Guard are to retire to the Cuddy.
1845. Stocqueler, Handbk. Brit. India (1854), 88. She has a magnificent saloon, or cuddy, where 100 persons can dine with comfort in cool weather.
2. A small room, closet or cupboard. (Cf. CUBBY.)
1793. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), IV. 74. We must give him from four to six or eight dollars a week for cuddies without a bed.
1873. Miss Braddon, Lucius Davoren, I. ii. 22. Dreaming he was in his cuddy at Battersea, supping upon his beloved sausage.
1885. H. C. McCook, Tenants Old Farm, 119. A constant personal inspection of all one’s house, especially of the cuddies and corners.
3. attrib., as cuddy door, roof, table.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, lvii. The youngsters among the passengers … used to draw out Sedley at the cuddy-table.
1861. R. E. Scoresby-Jackson, Life W. Scoresby, xv. 318. He took up his position on the cuddy-roof.
Hence Cuddyful.
1841. Macaulay, Ess. W. Hastings (1854), 654. Every ship … that arrived from Madras … brought a cuddy full of his admirers.
1883. Spectator, 22 Sept., 1208. A cuddyful of kings.
