Also 6–7 bandie. [The origin of this and of BANDY sb.1 is very obscure. Cf. F. bander ‘to bandie at Tennis’ Cotgr.; perhaps f. bande side. With Branch II. cf. F. bander, in se bander contre, ‘to bandy or oppose himself against, with his whole power; or to joyne in league with others against’ (Cotgr.), also Sp. bandear ‘to bandy, to follow a faction, to help a side, to become factious’ (Minsheu), It. bandare ‘to side or bandy’ (Florio). Cf. also BAND v.1: but while these answer in sense, no satisfactory explanation of the terminal -ie, -y presents itself.]
I.
1. trans. To throw or strike (a ball) to and fro, as in the games of tennis and bandy. (Mostly with figurative reference.)
1577. Holinshed, Chron., III. 1077/2. Kingdoms … be no balles for me to bandie.
1592. Nashe, P. Penilesse, 15 b. They may make Ruffians hall of Hell: and there bandy balles of Brimstone at one anothers head.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 845. Had we no Mastery at all over our Thoughts, but they were all like Tennis Balls, Bandied, and Struck upon us, as it were by Rackets from without.
1842. W. Grove, Corr. Phys. Forces, 20. A ball of caoutchouc, bandied about.
1860. Tennyson, Vis. Sin, iv. xi. To be the ball of Time, Bandied by the hands of fools.
b. absol.
1612. Webster, Vittoria Cor. (N.). While he had been bandying at tennis He might have … struck His soul into the hazard.
1699. Coles, Eng. Lat. Dict., To bandy at Tennis, reticulo pellere.
c. intr. To bound like a ball struck or driven.
1658. R. White, trans. Digby’s Powd. Symp. (1660), 20. Untill she bandies … upon another solid body, and so she continueth to make new boundings here and there.
† 2. To toss, drive, or throw aside or away. Obs.
1591. Troub. Raigne K. John (1611), 69. If Arthurs death be dismall to be heard, Bandie the newes for rumors of untruth: He liues my Lord.
a. 1593. Marlowe, Lust’s Dom., I. iv. The Cardinal, would bandy me away from Spain.
1667. H. More, Div. Dial., i. § 8 (1713), 17. If the Earth had been bandied out of one Vortex into another.
3. To toss from side to side, like a tennis-ball.
1596. Spenser, State Irel., Wks. (1862), 531/2. And from one hand to another doe bandie the service like a tennis-ball.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, II. ix. 190. Those Lepers … bandied betwixt two deaths of the famine and the sword.
1712. Blackmore, Creation, II. (1736), 47. What vig’rous arm … Bandies the mighty globe still to and fro?
1864. Gilbert & Churchill, Dolom. Mts. The path … was bandied from side to side on rough bridges.
4. To toss or pass from one to another, in a circle or group; to toss about.
1600. Dekker, Fortun., Wks. I. 143. Now he’s bandyed by the seas in scorne, From wave to wave.
1675. Crowne, Calisto, I. i. 8. Hark, how they bandy praise and flattery round!
1838. Dickens, Nich. Nick., xxx. The stories they invent … and bandy from mouth to mouth!
b. (Often emphasized by about.)
1597. Drayton, Mortimer, 17. But fortune … straight begins to bandy him about.
1748. Anson, Voy., II. ii. 130. Thus was this unhappy vessel bandied about within a few leagues of her intended harbour.
1847. Barham, Ingol. Leg. (1877), 234. Bandied about thus from pillar to post.
1872. Black, Adv. Phaeton, xxxi. 416. Sharp words were being bandied about.
1885. Sir J. Pearson Law Times Rep., LII. (N.S.), 183/1. Suitors being bandied about from one court to another.
5. To discuss from mouth to mouth. Cf. 4 b.
1642. View of Print. Book int. Observ., 40. To debate and bandy the principles of Government.
1692. Wagstaffe, Vind. Carol., i. 18. A Bill was preferr’d … touching Monopolies, and was strongly bandied on both sides.
1768. H. Walpole, Hist. Doubts, 40. His own legitimacy, which was too much connected with that of his brothers to be tossed and bandied about before the multitude.
1850. W. Irving, Goldsm., xxix. 289. Your name is … frequently bandied at table among us.
b. absol. or intr.
1603. Florio, Montaigne (1634), 191. Lucretius, may Philosophie and bandie at his pleasure.
6. To give and take (blows, words, reproaches, compliments, etc.); to exchange. To bandy words = to argue pertinaciously, wrangle.
1589. Greene, Menaph. (Arb.), 45. It little fits in this companie to bandie taunts of love.
1598. Greenwey, Tacitus’ Ann., VI. viii. 134. Rushing in couragiously to bandy stroakes.
1677. Govt. Venice, 271. When they had bandied Arguments at home, they went to fight their Enemies abroad.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, iv. Bandy not words, but begone.
1855. Motley, Dutch Rep., I. 27. Bandying blows in the thickest of the fight.
b. with (and recently against) a person.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T. (1613), 79. His Backe bandieth colours with the Sunne.
1605. Shaks., Lear, I. iv. 92. Do you bandy lookes with me, you Rascall?
1767. Johnson, in Boswell (1831), II. 36. It was not for me to bandy civilities with my sovereign.
1847. L. Hunt, Men, Wom. & Bks., II. xi. 280. The leaders … bandied against one another the foulest charges.
1880. Dixon, Windsor, III. vii. 69. She could not bandy words with insolent pages.
c. one thing for another.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., I. iv. 49. I will not bandie with thee word for word, But buckler with thee blowes.
1603. Drayton, Heroic. Ep., xiv. 45. To bandy Woe for Woe and Teare for Teare.
II.
† 7. To band together, league, confederate: a. trans. and refl. (cf. F. se bander.)
1597. Prayers in Liturg. Q. Eliz. (1847), 676. Our enemies … conspire and bandy themselves against us.
1632. C. Hughes, Saints Losse, 38. All the kings of the earth bandy themselves to fight with him.
1656. Trapp, Exp. Rev. ix. 5. Antichrist and his actuaries bandy and bend all their forces to destroy souls.
1659. J. Harrington, Lawgiving (1700), 397. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram … bandy’d themselves against Moses.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., iii. Here is his son already bandying and making a faction.
b. intr.
1633. G. Herbert, Humil., iv. in Temple, 62. Joyntly bandying, They drive them soon away.
1673. Lady’s Call., II. iii. § 18. The servants … bandy into leagues and parties.
1755. Carte, Hist. Eng., IV. 116. If he bandied to remove his father’s servants, the time would come, when others would do as much with regard to his own.
1758. Jortin, Erasm., I. 192. Giddy and ignorant young men … had bandied together in a body, calling themselves Trojans.
8. intr. To contend, strive, fight. (Cf. Cotgr. ‘Se bander contre, to bandie, or oppose himselfe against.’)
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., I. i. 313. A Valliant sonne in-law … One, fit to bandy with thy lawlesse Sonnes.
1643. Milton, Divorce, II. xxi. Wks. (1851), 122. That Law may bandy with nature, and traverse her sage motions, was an error. Ibid. (1660), Free Commw., Wks. 1738, I. 594. Neither did the People of Rome bandy with their Senate while any of the Tarquins liv’d.
1705. Hickeringill, Priest-cr., I. (1721), 55. Let them bandy against one another till I part them.
