daffy

comparative daffier · superlative daffiest

1. colloquialSomewhat mad or eccentric.

   He was daffy about her and she could twist him around her little finger.

   1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald, chapter IV, in O Russet Witch!

   2 more examples

   Now I'm hungry as a Rocky Mountain lion so come, let's go and get this poor, daffy, tealess widow and wine and dine with her and make it all up.

   1898 September 30, Willa Cather, The Westbound Train

   "You've gone so plum daffy you are forgetting your dinner," jeered her mother.

   1909, Gene Stratton-Porter, chapter I, in A Girl of the Limberlost

   Synonyms: crazy, nutty, wacky

plural daffies

1. informalA daffodil.

1. UKdatedslanguncountableGin.

   1837-39, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist “Do you give the children Daffy, Mrs. Mann?” inquired Bumble, following with his eyes the interesting process of mixing.

   2 more examples

   […] he failed repeatedly until he took over his famous house in Haymarket, where for many years, surrounded by such admirers as Byron, Tom Moore and Hazlitt, he smoked his yard of clay, drained his glass of 'daffy', and […]

   1954, Denzil Batchelor, Big Fight: The Story of World Championship Boxing, page 44

   Within Castle Tavern, at Holborn, Charles Perth and Lord Lucan were drowning their disparate sorrows in a glass of daffy.

   1991, Julie Caille, Change of Heart, page 255

1. A diminutive of the female given name Daphne.

   The name Daffy stuck, and to make it worse, Tony added "Duck" as an afterthought. For weeks, he led all the other kids in a chorus of quacks whenever Daphne appeared, but she ignored them.

   1983, Mary Downing Hahn, Daphne's Book, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 5

2. A diminutive of the female given name Daffodil.

   "Call me Daffy," Daffodil interrupted with a demure smile.

   1997, Emily Dalton, Wake Me With a Kiss, Harlequin, →ISBN, page 11

3. A surname from Welsh, derived from the Welsh equivalent of David.