Meanings
- pluralplural onlyA proverbial married couple content to share a quiet life of mutual devotion.
The house where the Batesons had lived—a dear old couple, a pleasantly tottering, Darby and Joan pair, always ready to welcome little Miss Vane and give her strawberries and seedy-cake.
1937, Dorothy L. Sayers, Busman's Honeymoon1 more example
"[…] he told me that he and your mother, when they travel together, are always mistaken for a honeymoon couple. Some of the experiences he related to me were really quite amusing." The stranger laughed at recollection of them—"that even here in this place, they are generally referred to as 'Darby and Joan.'"
1904 November 19, Jerome Klapka Jerome, “The Passing of the Third Floor Back”, in Saturday Evening Post
Origin
John Darby and his wife Joan were first mentioned in print in a poem published in The Gentleman's Magazine by Henry Woodfall in 1735.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Darby and Joan. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Darby%20and%20Joan
“Darby and Joan.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Darby%20and%20Joan. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Darby and Joan,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Darby%20and%20Joan.
Source: Darby and Joan on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.