toby

plural tobies

1. A drinking mug, in the shape of a human head with a hat atop; a Toby jug.
2. New ZealandUKThe valve that mediates the connection between a mains water-supply and a premises's own plumbing.
3. UKdatedslangThe road or highway.

   It is no wonder that itinerant agricultural workers travel on the toby and sleep in casual wards between jobs.

   1931 October 17, Eric Blair, “Hop-picking”, in The New Statesman

4. USdatedregionalA kind of inferior cigar of a long slender shape, tapered at one end.
5. The Moorish idol, Zanclus cornutus
6. Any of several species of pufferfish in the genus Canthigaster

plural Tobys

1. A male given name from Hebrew.

   By my troth, Sir Toby, you must come in earlier o' nights: your cousin, my lady, takes great exceptions to your ill hours.

   c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]

   3 more examples

   And for my own part, said my uncle Toby, though I should blush to boast of myself, Trim - yet had my name been Alexander, I could have done no more at Namur than my duty.

   1761, [Laurence Sterne], chapter 18, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume IV, London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley […], →OCLC

   His name was Toby Bell and he was entirely alone in his criminal contemplations. [ - - - ] As to the Toby, which might by the sound of it set him higher on the English social ladder than his provenance deserved, it derived from nothing more elevated than his father's pride in the holy man Tobias, whose wondrous filial virtues are set down in the ancient scripts.

   2013, John le Carré, A Delicate Truth, Penguin UK, →ISBN

   “How to hide, survive and use the urban environment as a sanctuary was a challenge but the soldiers adapted to the real-life challenges,” ETG Commander Col. Toby Till explained.

   2023 October 26, Rojoef Manuel, “British Army Trials Situational Awareness Technologies in Urban Warfare Training”, in The Defense Post, archived from the original on 17 Jul 2024

2. rareA female given name from Hebrew.
3. A surname originating as a patronymic.
4. UKin the traditional Punch and Judy show the showman's (live) dog trained to take part in the puppet show and to carry a bag around the audience soliciting donations.

1. The superintendent of a street market.

   But every market was reputed to be run the same way. The Toby was the godfather.

   2010, Howard Jacobson, The Mighty Walzer, →ISBN, page 82

   2 more examples

   The Boy shakes his head and the Toby comes on to the market wielding a claw hammer.

   2006, David Eldridge, Market Boy, →ISBN, page 29

   At first, neither of them seemed to notice it until the Toby (market traders name for the market manager) in charge of the market started shouting and waving his arms telling the driver that he couldn't park there.

   2011, Des Thompson, Naive Diamond, →ISBN, page 195