subs. (old Scots’).—A warning cry; ‘take care!’ [Fr. gardez’ (vous de) l’eau! Used before emptying slops out of window into the street. Hence the act of emptying slops itself, as in quotation dated 1818.]
1771. SMOLLETT, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (British Novelists), xxxi., p. 57. At ten o’clock the whole cargo is flung out of a back windore that looks into some street or lane, and the maid calls GARDY-LOO to the passengers, which signifies ‘Lord have mercy on you!’
1818. SCOTT, The Heart of Mid-lothian, ch. xxvii. She had made the GARDY-LOO out of the wrong window.
