waddy

¹ American  

[wod-ee] / ˈwɒd i /

noun

• waddies
  plural

1. a heavy wooden war club used by Australian Aboriginal peoples.

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verb (used with object)

waddied, waddying

1. to beat or strike with a waddy.

waddy ² American  

[wod-ee] / ˈwɒd i /

Or waddie

noun

• waddies
  plural

1. Cowboy Slang, Western U.S.. a cowboy.

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waddy British  

/ ˈwɒdɪ /

noun

1. a heavy wooden club used as a weapon by native Australians

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verb

1. (tr) to hit with a waddy

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• waddies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of waddy¹

First recorded in 1795–1805, waddy is from the Dharuk word wa-di “stick”

Origin of waddy²

An Americanism dating back to 1895–1900; origin uncertain

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

waddy waddies

Peter Ustinov, playing an unmarried remittance man who has to beat the girls off with a waddy, makes a comical old dag.

From Time Magazine Archive

Says he knew the waddy wouldn't show his head.

From Mavericks by William MacLeod Raine

Their weapons were the wooden club or waddy notched to the grasp, and spears of sticks, often crooked but well balanced, with points sharpened by tool or fire, and sometimes jagged.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 2 "Anjar" to "Apollo" by Various

Jimmy leaped up from where he had been squirming, as Jack Penny called it, on the ground, and began to bound about, brandishing his waddy, and killing nothing with blows on the head.

From Bunyip Land A Story of Adventure in New Guinea by Gordon Browne

Waddy, wad′i, n. a native Australian wooden war-club, a walking-stick—also Wadd′ie.—v.t. to strike with a waddy.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various

Now I could refer to your editors as "bowlegged waddies," "brocklefaced bozos," "drugstore caballeros" or "maverick-roping rustlers," and perhaps accomplish nothing but a feeling of resentment on their part.

From Time Magazine Archive

They came down in a semicircle, carrying waddies but not spears; a flock of kangaroo hemmed in between them.

From The History of Tasmania , Volume II by John West

“Spike, when they quiet down you ride round and tell all these day-herder waddies that if any of ’em want to write letters they can slip in to the wagon.

From Stepsons of Light by Eugene Manlove Rhodes

I seen five waddies yesterday in Bear Cat with busted legs or arms.

From The Fighting Edge by William MacLeod Raine

They also saw a lot of shields, spears, waddies, etc., which the natives had deposited under a bush.

From Explorations in Australia The Journals of John McDouall Stuart by John McDouall Stuart