Quisby
adj, noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A wretch; an idle person. obsolete, slang
- 1 Mean; destitute; strange. UK, archaic, slang
- 2 In difficult circumstances; in trouble. UK, archaic, slang
"[S]he told me as things was a-goin' werry quisby with 'em Wilkses. I says, "I'm sorry for 'er, but he's a party I don't 'old with, as in my opinion deserves to want, only but for others as would want with 'im." She says, "He's been and got 'isself in a 'ole with them books as he've been lewanted with, and will get two years over it, they say," and so he did, […]"
- 3 Drunk; tipsy. UK, archaic, slang
""[…] Did you know that my husband came home intoxicated?" Mrs. Brown laughed. "Oh, not so bad as that, surely! Only a little 'screwed.' George was 'quisby,' too. But then its Christmas, you know.""
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"[S]he told me as things was a-goin' werry quisby with 'em Wilkses. I says, "I'm sorry for 'er, but he's a party I don't 'old with, as in my opinion deserves to want, only but for others as would want with 'im." She says, "He's been and got 'isself in a 'ole with them books as he've been lewanted with, and will get two years over it, they say," and so he did, […]"
Etymology
Uncertain; perhaps quiz + -by, or from queer or Queer Street (“difficult circumstances”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.