subs. phr. (old).—1. A wanton: see TART (B. E.).
2. (old).—An impotent man; a eunuch.
3. (old archery).—The steel of a shaft or arrow that is small-breasted, and big towards the head. (KERSEY); a short arrowhead (B. E.).
1544. ASCHAM, Toxophilus [ARBER] 126. Those that be lytle brested and big toward the hede called by theyr lykenesse taper fashion, reshe growne, and of some merrye fellowes BOBTAYLES, be fit for them whiche shote vnder hande.
KINDRED BY BOBTAIL, subs. phr. (old).—See quot.
1585. FLEMING, The Nomenclator, 533a. Cousins by mariage, or KINRED (as they commonly terme it) BY BOBTAILE.
TAG, RAG, AND BOBTAIL; a mob of all sorts of low people; the common herd; the rabble: BOBTAIL is a comparatively modern usage, the orig. phrase having been TAG AND RAG and ‘longtail.’
1535. SIR FRANCIS BYGOD, ‘Against Impropriations’ [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 481. Bygod has ‘your fathers were wyse, both TAGGE AND RAG’; that is one and all].
1597. HEYWOOD, Timon [Five Plays in One, 10]. I am not of the RAGGS or FAGG END of the people.
1596. SPENSER, A View of the Present State of Ireland. They all came in both TAGGE AND RAGGE CUTTE AND LONG TAYLE.
1610. JONSON, The Alchemist, i. 5.
| Gallants, men and women, | |
| And of all sorts, TAG-RAG. |
1637. HEYWOOD, The Royall King, i. 1 [PEARSON, Works (1894), vi. 14]. Stood I but in the midst of my followers, I might say I had nothing about me but TAGGE AND RAGGE.
1659–60. PEPYS, Diary, 6 March. The dining-room … was full of TAG, RAG, AND BOBTAIL, dancing, singing, and drinking.
1785. WOLCOT (‘Peter Pindar’), Ode to R. A.’s ii., Wks. (1812) I., 80. TAGRAGS AND BOBTAILS of the sacred Brush!
1800. P. COLQUHOUN, Commerce of the Thames, ii. 75. That lowest class of the community who are vulgarly denominated THE TAG RAG AND BOBTAIL.
1820. BYRON, The Blues, ii., 23. The RAG, TAG, AND BOBTAIL of those they call ‘Blues.’
1831. GREVILLE, Memoirs, 19 Jan. He [William IV.] lives a strange life at Brighton, with TAGRAG AND BOBTAIL about him, and always open house.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, II. 109. TAG, RAG, AND BOBTAIL are capering there.
1840. DICKENS, Barnaby Rudge, xxxv. We don’t take in no TAG, RAG AND BOBTAIL at our house.
1855. THACKERAY, The Newcomes, xxxv. Old hags … draped in majestic RAGGERY.
