quisby

plural quisbies

1. obsoleteslangA wretch; an idle person.First known use 18th–19th c.

comparative more quisby · superlative most quisby

1. UKarchaicslangMean; destitute; strange.First known use 19th c.
2. UKarchaicslangIn difficult circumstances; in trouble.

   1 more example

   [S]he told me as things was a-goin' werry quisby with 'em Wilkses. I says, "I'm sorry for 'er, but he's a party I don't 'old with, as in my opinion deserves to want, only but for others as would want with 'im." She says, "He's been and got 'isself in a 'ole with them books as he've been lewanted with, and will get two years over it, they say," and so he did, […]

   1874, Arthur Sketchley, Mrs. Brown and Disraeli, page 151

3. UKarchaicslangDrunk; tipsy.

   "[…] Did you know that my husband came home intoxicated?" Mrs. Brown laughed. "Oh, not so bad as that, surely! Only a little 'screwed.' George was 'quisby,' too. But then its Christmas, you know."

   1889, Belgravia, volume 70, page 15