or kimbaw. TO SET THE ARMS AKIMBO, verb. phr. (old: now colloquial).—To set hands on hips with the elbows cocked.
1606. JOHN DAY, The Ile of Guls, iii. 4, p. 52. SET MINE ARMES A KEMBO thus, wrethe my necke and my bodie thus.
1677. WYCHERLEY, The Plain Dealer, ii. Nov. But he has no use of his arms but to SET ’EM ON KIMBOW.
1712. ARBUTHNOT, The History of John Bull, III. x. He observed Frog and old Lewis edging towards one another to whisper; so that John was forced to SIT with HIS ARMS AKIMBO to keep them asunder.
1748. T. DYCHE, A New General English Dictionary (5 ed.) [s.v.] KEMBO (v.) to set or put one’s hand upon one’s hip, to strut or look big.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. KIMBAW. TO SET ONE’S ARMS A KIMBAW, vulgarly pronounced ‘a kimbo,’ is to rest one’s hands on the hips, keeping the elbows square, and sticking out from the body, an insolent bullying attitude.
1837. MARRYAT, Snarleyyow; or The Dog Fiend, xii.
| Poll PUT HER ARMS AKIMBO, | |
| At the admiral’s house look’d she, | |
| To thoughts that were in limbo | |
| She now a vent gave free. |
1857. A. TROLLOPE, Barchester Towers, xxxiii. She tossed her head, and PUT HER ARMS A-KIMBO, with an air of confident defiance.
