Bandy
adj, name, noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A winter sport played on ice, from which ice hockey developed. uncountable
- 2 A carriage or cart used in India, especially one drawn by bullocks.
- 3 A club bent at the lower part for striking a ball at play; a hockey stick. countable
- 1 To give and receive reciprocally; to exchange. transitive
"to bandy words (with somebody)"
- 2 discuss lightly wordnet
- 3 To use or pass about casually. transitive
"to have one's name bandied about (or around)"
- 4 exchange blows wordnet
- 5 To throw or strike reciprocally, like balls in sports. transitive
"Do you bandy looks with me, you rascal?"
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- 6 toss or strike a ball back and forth wordnet
- 7 To fight (with or against someone). intransitive, obsolete
"Brother displaie my ensignes in the field, Ile bandie with the Barons and the Earles, And eyther die, or liue with Gaueston."
- 1 Bow-legged, having knees bending outward.
"1794, William Blake, The Little Vagabond, third stanza Then the Parson might preach, and drink, and sing, / And we’d be as happy as birds in the spring; / And modest Dame Lurch, who is always at church, / Would not have bandy children, nor fasting, nor birch."
- 1 have legs that curve outward at the knees wordnet
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"You always bandy words with me: you never listen to me."
Etymology
From French bander (“to bandy at tennis”), with -y, -ie added due to influence from Spanish and Portuguese bandear and/or Old Occitan bandir (“to throw”), from the same root as English band. Compare also with banter.
From Scots bandy.
Probably from the verb bandy in the sense "toss/bat back and forth", or possibly from the Welsh word bando, most likely derived from the Proto-Germanic *bandją (“a curved stick”).
Borrowed from Telugu బండి (baṇḍi).
Related phrases
More for "bandy"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.