[Supposed to be a diminutive abbreviation of alabaster: cf. Willy, Tommy, etc.] A choice marble or taw, used by boys in playing; one of real marble or alabaster in contrast with those of terra cotta, etc.
1720. De Foe, Duncan Campb., iv. Wks. 1871, 401. A large bag of marbles and alleys.
1748. Phil. Trans., XLV. 456. Pellets, vulgarly called Alleys, which boys play withal.
1807. Coleridge, Own Times, III. 953. While he was playing at marbles, would quarrel with the taws and alays in his mouth, because had understood it was the way Demosthenes learnt to splutter.
1833. [J. A. Paris], Philos. in Sport, x. 171. Why, your taw is a brown marble, and your ally, if I remember rightly, a very white one; is it not so?
1837. Dickens, Pickw. (1847), 281/1. Inquiring whether he had won any alley tors or commoneys lately.
1865. Miss Mulock, Christian’s Mist., 37. An ‘ally taw,’ that is, a real alabaster marble.
