[f. TOM sb. + BOY sb.]
† 1. A rude, boisterous, or forward boy. Obs.
(Generally so taken in quot. a. 1553; certainly so in 1599.)
a. 1553. Udall, Royster D., II. iv. (Arb.), 37. Is all your delite and ioy In whiskyng and ramping abroade like a Tom boy?
1599. Massinger, etc., Old Law, III. ii. Must young court tits [= young gentlemen courtiers] Play tomboys’ tricks with her, and he live?
† 2. A bold or immodest woman. Obs.
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 203/2. Sainte Paule meaneth that women must not be impudent, they must not be tomboyes, to be shorte, they must not bee vnchast.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., I. vi. 122. To be partner’d With Tomboyes hyr’d with that selfe exhibition which your owne Coffers yeeld.
1619. Fletcher, etc., Knt. Malta, II. i. Ye Filly, Ye Tit, ye Tomboy!
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Tom-boy, a Ramp, or Tomrig.
3. A girl who behaves like a spirited or boisterous boy; a wild romping girl; a hoyden.
1592. Lyly, Midas, I. ii. If thou shouldest rigge vp and downe in our iackets, thou wouldst be thought a very tom-boy.
1622. T. Stoughton, Chr. Sacrif., xii. 169. Of such short-haired Gentlewomen I find not one example either in Scripture or elsewhere. And what shall I say of such poled rigs, ramps and Tomboyes?
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Tom-boy, a girle or wench that leaps up and down like a boy.
1730–6. Bailey (folio), Tom-boy, a ramping, frolicsome, rude girl.
1802. in Spirit Pub. Jrnls., VI. 22. The violent exercise of the skipping-rope, which is … only fit for some Miss Tom-boy.
1830. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. IV. Introd. Let. 7. He had no taste for giantesses, and a particular aversion for hoydens and tomboys and women who trespassed against the delicacy of their sex.
1888. Mrs. H. Ward, R. Elsmere, x. As a rough tomboy of fourteen, she had shown Catherine … good many uncouth signs of affection.
4. attrib.
1657. Howell, Londinop., 398. Stool-ball, though that stradling kind of Tomboy sport be not so handsome for Mayds.
1675. Han. Woolley, Gentlewom. Comp., 52. To laugh, or express any Tom-boy trick is as bad or worse.
1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Mast. Greylands, iv. He saw a great deal to find fault with in her rude, tomboy ways.
1882. Atlantic Monthly, LI. 87. Having … practiced them in a mere romping, ‘tom-boy’ spirit when she was a young girl.
Hence Tomboyade nonce-wd., an escapade in the manner of a tomboy; Tomboyful a., Tomboyish a., like or having the character of a tomboy; hence Tomboyishness; Tomboyism.
1886. Blackw. Mag., April, 516. Reminiscences of scrambles and *tomboyades when they were girls together.
1887. J. Ashby Sterry, Lazy Minstrel (1892), 82. Careless and joyful…. Pet in short petticoats—Truly *tomboyful!
1862. Miss Yonge, C’tess Kate, iv. A child … certainly *tom-boyish except for a certain timidity.
1887. ‘Edna Lyall,’ Knt.-Errant (1889), 227. A rather tomboyish young person of fourteen.
1883. L. Wingfield, A. Rowe, III. vii. 130. Under the roughness and *tomboyishness was a heart of real gold.
1876. Miss Yonge, Womankind, ii. What I mean by ‘*tom-boyism’ is a wholesome delight in rushing about at full speed, playing at active games, climbing trees, rowing boats, making dirt-pies, and the like.
