Dandy Meaning
/ˈdæn.di/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA man very concerned about his physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance in a cult of self.
nounSomething excellent in its class.
Sentence Examples
Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.
He was a funny little man, a great dandy, but wonderfully clever.
Not everything in Morocco is fine and dandy.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The well-dressed ____ wore a velvet coat and monocle.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Candy is ____, but liquor is quicker.
Word Origin & History
Borrowed from Scots dandy (“a fop; one who is well-dressed”). Of uncertain origin. Possibly from Dandy, a diminutive of Andrew, yet the Scots word is used also in reference to women. Alternatively, possibly a back-formation of Scots dandilly, dandillie (“one who is spoiled or pampered; a "pet"”). Compare English dandle and dander.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The gallant young Indian dandy at home on furlough — immense dandies these — chained and moustached — driving in tearing cabs, the pillars of the theatres, living at West End Hotels, — […]"
— 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 60, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
"No town-bred dandy will compare with a country-bred one—I mean a downright bumpkin dandy–a fellow that, in the dog-days, will mow his two acres in buckskin gloves for fear of tanning his hands."
— 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter VI, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 68:
"“Gerald Croft is an attractive chap about thirty, rather too manly to be a dandy but very much the easy well-bred young man-about-town.”"
— 1945, J. B. Priestley, chapter I, in An Inspector Calls:
"Somebody quite as notorious as Brummell, but whose follies have been far more mischievous; whose eloquence is great, but certainly not always refined; and to whose health many a dandy of whisky has been tossed off."
— 1844, William Jesse, The life of George Brummell, page 57:
"Other notable instances of horse-drawn vehicles for passenger services were the dandies used on the two-mile branch to Inchture of the Perth-Dundee line of the Caledonian Railway […], and the 2½-mile branch of the North British Railway from Drumburgh to Port Carlisle. […] One of the Port Carlisle dandies was preserved at Waverley Station, Edinburgh, for several years, but is now in the Railway Museum at York."
— 1958 February 26, “Notes and News: The Fintona Tram”, in Railway Magazine, pages 139-140:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The well-dressed ____ wore a velvet coat and monocle.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Candy is ____, but liquor is quicker.