subs. (colloquial).—1.  An ass; a MOKE (q.v.). Also NED: see MOKE.

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  1658.  ROWLEY, TOURNEUR, etc., The Witch of Edmonton [SOUTHEY’S Commonplace Book, ii., 447]. The ass was called Tom, as well as Jack and NEDDY.

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  1790.  WOLCOT (‘Peter Pindar’), Rowland for an Oliver [Wks. (Dublin, 1794), ii., 412].

        But, Peter, thou art mounted on a NEDDY:
Or, in the London phrase,—thou Dev’nshire monkey,
Thy Pegasus is nothing but a donkey.

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  1818.  P. EGAN, Boxiana, I., 35. Costermongers, in droves, were seen mounting their NEDDIES.

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  2.  (colloquial).—A fool; a DONKEY (q.v.). See BUFFLE and CABBAGE-HEAD.

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  1823.  BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v. NEDDY—sometimes Ass-neger, other names for jackass—the living emblem of patience and long suffering.

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  1855.  THACKERAY, The Newcomes, i. All types of all characters march through all fables; tremblers and boasters; victims and bullies; dupes and knaves; long-eared NEDDIES, giving themselves leonine airs.

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  3.  (Irish).—A large quantity; plenty. Fr. hugrement; la foultitude (subs.); and gourdement.

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  4.  (thieves’).—See quots. Fr. un tourne-clef.

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  ENGLISH SYNONYMS.  Billy; cosh; colt.

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  1864.  Cornhill Magazine, vi., 647. Pistols are seldom carried by them; the weapon is generally a NEDDY or life-preserver.

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  1879.  J. W. HORSLEY, ‘Autobiography of a Thief,’ in Macmillan’s Magazine, XL., 503. He said, ‘We shall want some twirls and the stick (crowbar), and bring a NEDDIE (life-preserver) with you.’

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  1884.  Referee, 21 Dec., 1, 2. If husbands left off kicking their wives to death … and if the NEDDY and knuckle-duster went suddenly out of fashion.

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  1897.  BREWER, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, s.v. NEDDY. A life-preserver; so called from one Kennedy, whose head was broken in St. Giles’s by a poker.

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  5.  See NED.

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