[App. f. the vb.; but the origin of sense 5, and the order of the senses are quite uncertain.]
I. † 1. A particular way of playing at tennis, the nature of which is not now known. It does not appear from the quotations whether bandy was the same as check, i.e., the modern ‘cramped game’ of ‘touch no walls.’ Obs.
1578. T. N., trans. Conq. W. India, 179. They play not at chases, but at bandie or at Check, that is, if the ball touch the wall, it looseth.
1607. Lingua, II. v. in Hazl., Dodsl., IX. 381. The shooting stars … Are nothing but the balls they lose at bandy.
† 2. A stroke with a racket, a ball so struck; a ‘return’ at tennis. Obs.
1598. Marston, Met. Pigmal. Im., i. 141. Straight with loud mouth (a bandy Sir) he cries.
1627. Drayton, Agincourt (1748), 4. They such racket shall in Paris see When over line such bandies I shall drive, As that, before the set be fully done, France may perhaps into the hazard run.
1655. J. Cotgrave, Wit’s Interpr., 7. A bandie ho! the people crie, And so the ball takes flight.
† 3. fig. Obs.
1602. Dekker, Satirom., Wks. I. 243. Take this bandy with the racket of patience.
1604. Edmonds, Observ. Cæsar’s Comm., 21. Their factions … caused one partie to bring in Ariouistus … and the other partie, the Romaines to make good their bandy.
1638. Ford, Fancies, V. iii. (1811), 210. Not wronged me?… this is the bandy of a patience Beyond all sufferance.
II. 4. A game, also called bandy-ball, in which a small ball is driven to and fro over the ground, with bent club sticks, by two sides of players; the same as HOCKEY.
1693. D’Urfey, Yorksh. Heiress. The prettiest fellow At bandy once and cricket.
1796. Southey, Lett. Spain (1799), 133. A royal recreation similar to what boys call Bandy in England.
1822. W. Irving, Braceb. Hall, II. 64. Bandy-ball, trapball, wrestling, leaping.
1860. Geo. Eliot, Mill on Floss, I. 77. She’s only a girl—she can’t play at bandy.
5. A club bent or curved at its lower end, used for striking the ball in this game.
1629. T. Adams, Medit. Creed, Wks. 1861, III. 122. The mathematician [will not] lend his engines for wasters and bandies.
1681. R. Knox, Hist. Ceylon, 50. All which … carry staves in their hands like to Bandyes, the crooked end uppermost.
1850. Cricketer’s Man., 24. Sending it with blows of their bandies, whizzing through the air.
