subs. (old).—An instrument (of wax, horn, leather, india-rubber, gutta-percha, etc., and other soft material), shaped like, and used by women as a substitute for, the penis. Now called a BROOM-HANDLE or BROOMSTICK, the pudendum in this connection = BROOM (q.v.). [BAILEY: from It., diletto, a woman’s delight, or from DALLY = to toy.] In Lombardy, passo tempo.
c. 1672. BUTLER, Dildoides (Occasioned by Burning a hogshead of DILDOES at Stocks Market).
1886. BURTON, The Thousand Nights and a Night, vol. x., p. 239. Of the penis succedaneus, that imitation of the Arbor-vitæ, or Sotor-Kosmou, which the Latins called phallus and fascinum, the French godemiché, and the Italians passatempo and diletto (whence our DILDO), every kind abounds, varying from a stuffed ‘French Letter’ to a cone of ribbed horn, which looks like an instrument of torture.
Verb (old).—To wanton with a woman. Cf., subs., sense. For synonyms, see FIRKYTOODLE.
