subs. (common).—1. Handcuffs. [Origin uncertain. Father Derby’s name (he is supposed to have been a noted usurer) was already proverbial in 1576, but that is all now known of him.]
ENGLISH SYNONYMS. Black-bracelets; buckles; Father derbie’s bands; ruffles; wife; snitchers; clinkers; government securities; twisters; darbies and joans (= fetters coupling two persons).
FRENCH SYNONYMS. Les alliances (popular = wedding rings); une bride (thieves’ = a convicts’ chain); le bouclage (thieves’: also = imprisonment); une cadenne (thieves’: applied to a neck-chain); un cabriolet (thieves’ = a small rope or strap); une guirlande (a chain for two).
ITALIAN SYNONYM. Trionfo (literally = triumph).
SPANISH SYNONYM. Calceta (properly = understocking).
1576. GASCOIGNE, The Steele Glas, I., 787. To binde such babes in father DERBIE’S BANDS.
1592. GREENE, A Quip for an Upstart Courtier (Harleian Miscellany, V., 405). Then hath my broker an usurer at hand, as ill as himself, and he brings the money; but they tie the poor soul in such DARBIES’ BANDS (i.e., bonds], what with receiving ill commodities (i.e., goods in lieu of cash], and forfeitures upon the bond, that they dub him ‘Sir John had Land,’ before they leave him; and share, like wolves, the poor novice’s wealth betwixt them as a prey.
1602. CAREW, Survey of Cornwall, p. 15 (ed. 1769). [Speaking of the hard dealings and usurious tricks of the marchant Londoners in their dealings with the Cornish tinners of his day, this writer tells the wiles by which the poor wretches became bound ‘in DARBYE’S BONDS.’]
1676. A Warning for House-keepers (canting song).
| But when that we come to the Whitt, | |
| Our DARBIES to behold. |
1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 12, s.v.
1819. T. MOORE, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 77.
| Thus a new set of DARBIES, when first they are worn, | |
| Makes the Jail-bird uneasy, though splendid their ray. |
1836. MARRYAT, Japhet, ch. lvii. We may as well put on the DARBIES, continued he, producing a pair of handcuffs.
1890. Standard, 7 April, p. 6, col. 3. (Addressing the officer): Didn’t you take me by the scruff of the neck, and hold me whilst others put the DARBIES on me?—I did not.
2. (common).—Sausages. Also BAGS OF MYSTERY and CHAMBERS OF HORRORS (q.v.).
