[The familiar form of the Christian name Tobias, employed in various unconnected senses. (But some of the senses here grouped may have a different origin.)]
1. The posteriors, the buttocks: esp. in phrase to tickle one’s toby. slang.
1681. [see TICKLE v. 6 b].
1842. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Ser. II. Sir Rupert, Lay Naiads. Throw us out John Doe and Richard Roe, And sweetly we’ll tickle their tobies.
2. (With capital T.) A jug or mug (formerly common) in the form of a stout old man wearing a long and full-skirted coat and a three-cornered hat (18th c. costume). Also called Toby Fill-pot, Toss-pot. Also attrib. as Toby (Fill-pot) jug.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, iv. ‘Put Toby this way, my dear.’ This Toby was the brown jug of which previous mention has been made. Ibid., lxxx. When he had dined, comforted himself with a pipe, an extra Toby, a nap.
1852. Sewell, Exper. Life, xix. (1858), 131. The great earthenware cup, the figure of a stout little man, which usually went by the name of Toby.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, I. i. Pouring out his old ale from a Toby Philpot jug.
1901. Pall Mall G., 31 Aug., 3 (Cass. Supp.). The brown Toby jug was filled for him.
1908. Daily Chron., 3 Nov., 5/6. The Tobies are relics of the old coaching days.
3. The name of the trained dog introduced (in the first half of the 19th c.) into the Punch and Judy show, which wears a frill round its neck: hence Toby collar, frill, a turn-down pleated or goffered collar worn by women and children.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xviii. Producing a little terrier … ‘He was once a Toby of yours, wasn’t he?’
1885. Pall Mall G., 30 April, 6/1. A trailing dress with the Toby frill so favoured by these … reformers.
1909. 19th Century, March, 446. A young gentleman in so-called skeleton trousers and a Toby frill.
1909. Daily Chron., 30 Aug., 7/5. A turn-down Toby collar of frilled lawn.
4. A color-printing machine for textiles.
1876. Encycl. Brit., IV. 684/2. By means of a modern invention several colours may be applied at once on the cloth by means of one block. The machine used for this purpose, which is called a ‘toby,’ consists of [etc.].
5. An inferior kind of cigar. U. S. slang.
1896. Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, 18 July, 15/3. A large supply of … tobies.
1903. Westm. Gaz., 23 May, 10/1. The railway ticket office clerk twists and swigs at a ‘toby’ as he asks you ‘Where for, sir?’
