Darby and Joan

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noun

a happily married elderly couple who lead a placid, uneventful life.

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Origin of Darby and Joan

Named after a couple mentioned in an 18th-century song

Words nearby Darby and Joan

DAR, daraf, darbies, d'Arblay, darby, Darby and Joan, Darby and Joan settee, Darbyite, darcy, Darcy's law, Dard

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use Darby and Joan in a sentence

As an example of good science-and-society policymaking, the history of fluoride may be more of a cautionary tale.
Anti-Fluoriders Are The OG Anti-Vaxxers|Michael Schulson|July 27, 2016|DAILY BEAST
As this list shows, punishments typically run to a short-ish jail sentence and/or a moderately hefty fine.
In Defense of Blasphemy|Michael Tomasky|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Yes, Byrd—dead four-and-a-half years now—was a Kleagle in the Ku Klux Klan.
Steve Scalise and the Right’s Ridiculous Racial Blame Game|Michael Tomasky|January 2, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Estee Lauder has not crumbled to dust because the perfect brown face of Joan Smalls represents it.
One Vogue Cover Doesn’t Solve Fashion’s Big Race Problem|Danielle Belton|January 2, 2015|DAILY BEAST

Someone recently sent me an old Joan Didion essay on self-respect that appeared in Vogue.
Daphne Merkin on Lena Dunham, Book Criticism, and Self-Examination|Mindy Farabee|December 26, 2014|DAILY BEAST
She also practises etching, pen-and-ink drawing, as well as crayon and water-color sketching.
Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D.|Clara Erskine Clement
No law of that country must exceed in words the number of letters in their alphabet, which consists only in two-and-twenty.
Gulliver's Travels|Jonathan Swift
Joan Boughton, a widow, was burned for heresy; said to be the first female martyr of England.
The Every Day Book of History and Chronology|Joel Munsell
Then he clapped his fiddle under his chin and without more ado struck up "Bobbing Joan."
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3)|Charles James Wills
Mr. Spurrell came down to see a horse, and we shall be very glad to have the benefit of his opinion by-and-by.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 107, November 3, 1894|Various

British Dictionary definitions for Darby and Joan

Darby and Joan

/ (ˈdɑːbɪ) /

noun

an ideal elderly married couple living in domestic harmony

Darby and Joan Club a club for elderly people

Word Origin for Darby and Joan

C18: a couple in an 18th-century English ballad

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012