arch. Also 5 Tybert. [a. Flem. and Du. Tybert, Tibeert, OFr. Tibert.] The name of the cat in the apologue of Reynard the Fox; thence, used as a quasi-proper name for any cat, and (as a common noun), a cat. (By Shakespeare identified with Tibait:—OF. Thibauld, Thibaut, Eng. Theobald, vulgo Tibbald.)
1481. Caxton, Reynard, iii. (Arb.), 6. Wyth this so cam Tybert the catte … and sprang in emonge them.
[1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. iv. 18. Is he a man to encounter Tybalt? B. Why what is Tibalt? M. More then Prince of Cats. Ibid., III. i. 78. Tybalt, you Rat-catcher, will you walke? Tib. What woulds thou haue with me? Mer. Good King of Cats, nothing but one of your nine liues.]
1616. B. Jonson, Epigr., ad fin., The Voyage itself, 135. Cats there lay divers had been flea’d and roasted…. But ’mongst these Tiberts, who do you think there was?
1672. Dryden, Assignation, I. i. His violin … squeaks so lewdly, that Sir Tibert in the gutter mistakes him for his mistress.
1872. M. Collins, Pr. Clarice, II. iv. 61. He’d have killed that tibert, Tybalt, as willingly as he’d have killed a cat.
