gardy loo

A form of gardyloo — A cry used to warn passersby that a vessel of wastewater is about to be emptied into the street.

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Meanings

interjection
  1. alternativeAlternative form of gardyloo.

    Aunt nell the patter flash and gardy loo! / Bijou, she trolls, bold on lallies / slick as stripes down the Dilly.

    2015 October 12, Adam Lowe, “Poem of the week: Vada That”, in The Guardian
    1 more example

    [A]ll the chairs in the family are emptied into this here barrel once a-day; and at ten o'clock at night the whole cargo is flung out of a back windore that looks into some street or lane, and the maid calls Gardy loo to the passengers, which signifies, Lord have mercy upon you! and this is done every night in every house at Haddingborough; so you may guess, Mary Jones, what a sweet savour comes from such a number of profuming pans […]

    1771, Tobias Smollet, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, OCLC 277265635, republished in The Novels of Tobias Smollett, M.D.: viz. Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle, and Humphrey Clinker (Ballantyne's Novelist's Library; II), London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., 1821, OCLC 271400557, Dublin: Printed for A. Leathley, J. Exshaw, H. Saunders, W. Sleater, D. Chamberlain [and ten others], page 626
Cite this entry
APA

gardy loo. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gardy%20loo

MLA

“gardy loo.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gardy%20loo. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gardy loo,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gardy%20loo.

Source: gardy loo on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.