Baby

or babe, subs. (nursery and colloquial).—1.  A childish person: e.g., ‘a GREAT BABY,’ ‘a MERE BABY,’ etc. Hence, TO SMELL OF THE BABY = to be infantine or childish (in character or ability): cf. BABY-ACT. Also as verb = to act (or treat) childishly; BABYHOOD (BABYDOM or BABYISM) = childishness; BABY-BUNTING = an endearment.

  1596.  SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet, ii. 2. That GREAT BABY you see there is not yet out of his swaddling clothes.

  1603.  DEKKER, Patient Grissil, ii. 1, p. 17. My brisk spangled BABY will come into a stationer’s shop.

  1611.  Bible, ‘Translator’s Preface,’ i. Hee was no BABE, but a great clearke.

  1618.  BRETON, The Courtier and the Country-man, 19. There are some that in their Child-hood are so long in their horne booke, that doe what they can, they will SMELL OF THE BABY till they cannot see to read.

  1637.  FLETCHER, The Elder Brother, iii. 5. Though he be grave with years, he’s a GREAT BABY.

  1660.  MILTON, Free Commonwealth [Works (1851), v. 430]. If we were aught els but Sluggards or BABIES.

  1667.  DRYDEN, Martin Mar-all [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, ii. 113. A grown-up person is called a BABY].

  1742.  YOUNG, Night Thoughts, vi. 521. It BABIES us with endless toys.

  1837.  Blackwood’s Magazine, xli. 280. The solemn littleness of Lord John Russell, and the BABYISMS of Lord Morpeth.

  1860.  T. P. THOMPSON, Audi Alteram Partem, III. cxiv. 45. All the malevolence and BABYHOOD of the country rush to display themselves.

  1864.  Daily Telegraph, 14 Sept. The young foal or filly must be raced in its BABYDOM.

  1865.  A. D. T. WHITNEY, The Gayworthys, I. 240. I should like to be made much of, and tended—yes BABIED.

  1868.  DUFF, A Political Survey (1868), 159. Too BABYISH even to deserve the semblance of consideration.

  2.  (old).—In pl. = pictures in books. [O.E.D.: perh. orig. the ornamental tail-pieces and borders with Cupids and grotesque figures interworked.]

  1605.  SYLVESTER, Du Bartas (1621), 5.

  1618.  J. HALES, Golden Remains (1673), II. 8. Provided that, in the Tables and Maps, there were no pictures and BABIES.

  1655.  FULLER, The History of the University of Cambridge (1840), 39. More pleased with BABIES in books than children are.

  3.  (old colloquial).—The minute reflection of one gazing into another’s eye. Hence TO LOOK BABIES (or A BOY) IN THE EYES = to look amorously; to cast SHEEP’S-EYES (q.v.).

  d. 1586.  SIDNEY, Astrophel and Stella.

  1593.  DONNE, The Ecstasy.

  1593.  Tell-Trothes New-yeares Gift, 39. That BABIE which lodges IN womens and mens EIES.

  1594.  DRAYTON, Idea, 2.

  [?].  [ELLIS, Specimens of Early English Romances, 7].

  1609.  SHAKESPEARE, Timon of Athens, i. 2.

  c. 1613.  FLETCHER, The Woman’s Prize, v. 1. No more fool TO LOOK GAY BABIES IN YOUR EYES, young Roland, And hang about your pretty neck. Ibid. (1618), The Loyal Subject. LOOK BABIES IN YOUR EYES, my pretty sweet one.

  1619.  PURCHAS, Microcosmus, 90. But wee cannot so passe the centre of the EYE, which wee call Pupilla, quasi Puppa, THE BABIE IN THE EYE, the Sight.

  1621.  BURTON, The Anatomy of Melancholy, III. II. v. 5. (1651), 576. They may kiss and coll, lye and LOOK BABIES IN ONE ANOTHER’S EYES … satiate themselves with love’s pleasures.

  d. 1635.  RANDOLPH, Upon a Hermaphrodite, in Poems, 124.

  1636.  HEYWOOD, Love’s Mistress, 3.

  1647–8.  HERRICK, Hesperides (1897), i. 12.

  1668.  SIR R. L’ESTRANGE, The Visions of Quevedo (1778), 57. Be sure when you come into company that you do not stand staring the men in the face as if you were MAKING BABIES IN THEIR EYES.

  1672.  MARVELL, The Rehearsal Transposed, I. 66. Only to speculate his own BABY IN THEIR EYES.

  1682.  BEHN, The City-heiress, iii. 1. Sigh’d, and LOOKT BABIES IN HIS GLOATING EYES.

  1821.  SHELLEY, Prometheus Unbound.

  4.  (old).—A doll; a puppet; a child’s plaything: also BABY-CLOUTS = a rag-doll: see BARTHOLOMEW-BABY.

  1530.  PALSGRAVE, Langue Francoyse, 196/1. BABE that children play with, povppee.

  1552.  HULVET, Abecedarium. BABY or puppet for chyldren, Pupa.

  1563.  HOMILIES, Idolatry, iii. (1844), 238. Puppets and BABIES for old fools in dotage.

  1579.  SPENSER, The Shepheardes Calender, May, 240.

  1595.  SHAKESPEARE, King John, iii. 4. 58. I should forget my sonne Or madly think a BABE of clowts were he. Ibid. (1606), Macbeth, iii. 4. 106. If trembling I inhabit then, protest me The BABY of a girl.

  1611.  COTGRAVE, Dictionarie, s.v. Muguet. m. … A curiously-dressed BABIE of clowts.

  1613.  BEAUMONT and FLETCHER, The Captain, i. 3. And now you cry for’t, As children do for BABIES, back again.

  d. 1631.  DRAYTON, The Moon-calf.

  1631.  French Schoole-Maister, f. 98. Shall we buy a BABIE or two for our children for pastime?

  1640.  M. PARKER, The King and a Poore Northern Man. What gares these bables and BABIES all?

  1640.  BRATHWAITE, The Two Lancashire Lovers, xv. 113. And drawing neare the bed, to put her Daughters armes and higher part of her body too within sheets: perceiving it not to be her Daughter: but a BABY-CLOUTS only to delude her.

  1651.  W. LILLY, The History of King Charles the First (1774), 219. Whose father sold BABIES and such pedlary ware in Cheapside.

  1700.  CONGREVE, The Way of the World, v. 5. She was never suffered to play with a male child, though but in coats. Nay, her very BABIES were of the feminine gender.

  1712.  STEELE, Spectator, 500. 3. Little girls tutoring their BABIES. Ibid., 478. These [boxes] are to have Folding Doors, which being open’d you are to behold a BABY dress’d out.

  1721.  POPE, Letter to Blount, 3 Oct. Sober over her Sampler, or gay over a jointed BABY.

  Adj. (colloquial).—Small; tiny: e.g., a BABY-glass, BABY-engine, etc.

  1859.  J. M. JEPHSON, Narrative of a Walking Tour in Brittany, vii. 88. Turrets beside which the leaning tower of Pisa is a BABY.

  1864.  Realm, 15 June, 5. Ravines from which Jumnus, Indus, and Ganges, yet BABY-streams, gush.

  TO KISS THE BABY, verb. phr. (American).—To take a drink; TO SMILE (q.v.).