Also 9 stirrabout. [f. verbal phrase stir about: see STIR v. and ABOUT adv.]
1. a. Porridge made by stirring oatmeal (or occas. some other meal) in boiling water or milk. (Originally Anglo-Irish.)
1682. Piers, Descr. West-Meath (1770), 121. They … have to their meal one formal dish,… which some call, stirabout or hasty pudding, that is flour and milk boiled thick.
1708. W. King, Art of Cookery, Let. ix. 142. Milk Porridge,… Flumary, Stir about, and the like.
1812. Mar. Edgeworth, Absentee, xi. If your honour takes stirabout, an old hand will engage to make that to your liking, any way.
1838. Dickens, Nich. Nick., viii. The boys, having previously had their appetites thoroughly taken away by stir-about and potatoes.
1843. Thackeray, Irish Sk.-bk., xiv. Look at them … over a bowl of stir-about.
1873. E. Smith, Foods, 159. Maize … is very commonly made into pudding…. It is now known in Ireland as Stirrabout, and in Italy as Polenta.
1894. D. C. Murray, Making of Novelist, 102. One pint of stirabout made of Indian meal.
b. (See quot. 1828.)
1828. Carr, Craven Gloss., Stir-about, oatmeal and drippings stirr’d about in a frying pan.
1863. Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia’s Lovers, xliv. I’ve made mysel’ some stirabout for my supper.
c. fig. A bustle, a state of confusion.
1905. E. Armstrong, in Eng. Hist. Rev., Jan., 158. The young student did not find peace in this guazzabuglio, this stirabout of republic within republic [sc. Siena].
1915. Times, 28 May, 9/1. The formation of this new office [the Ministry of Munitions] is the one outstanding fact in the political stirabout, and the one positive gain.
2. A bustling person.
1870. J. Nicholson, Idylls, 54.
| For a’ she’s sic a steer-about, sae fu’ o’ mirth an’ fun, | |
| She taks the lead in ilka class, an’ mony a prize she’s won. |
1903. Westm. Gaz., 17 Sept., 3/2. The ‘stirabout’ is not a popular person with his masters.
attrib. 1837. T. Hook, Jack Brag, I. i. 2. Get a sensible, stir-about husband.
