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Origin of tantivy

First recorded in 1635–45; origin uncertain
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for tantivy

Historical Examples of tantivy

  • My father may grumble over his beer jugs, but he's a Churchman and a Tantivy for all that.

    Micah Clarke

    Arthur Conan Doyle

  • Let the steam-pot hiss till it's hot, Give me the speed of the Tantivy trot.

    Tom Brown at Rugby

    Thomas Hughes

  • Littlebath, among the Tantivy hills, would be the very place for her.

    Miss Mackenzie

    Anthony Trollope

  • Never shall I forget an adventure that occurred to me on the box of the far-famed "Tantivy."

  • The words sound as though they would go best with a hunting-tune, a sort of “Heigh-ho, tantivy!”

British Dictionary definitions for tantivy

tantivy

adverb

at full speed; rapidly

noun

plural -tivies a hunting cry, esp at full gallop

interjection

a hunting cry, esp at full gallop

Word Origin for tantivy

C17: perhaps imitative of galloping hooves
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