1856. T. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School Days, pt. 1, ch. iii. Two boys, who stopped close by him, and one of whom, a fat gaby of a fellow, pointed at him and called him young ‘mammy-sick.’
1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. ix. Don’t stand laughing there like a great gaby.
1875. Ouida, Signa, vol. I., ch. iv., p. 47. ‘You have never dried your clothes, Bruno,’ said his sister-in-law, ‘What a gaby a man is without a wife!’
Gad, subs. (common).—An idle slattern. An abbreviation of gad-about (q.v.).
Intj. (common).—An abbreviation of by Gad! Cf. Agad, Egad—themselves corruptions of by God, Lit.
On the gad, adv. phr. (old).—1. On the spur of the moment.
1605. Shakspeare, Lear, i., 2. All this is done upon the gad.
2. (colloquial).—On the move, on the gossip.
1818. Austen, Persuasion. I have no very good opinion of Mrs. Charles’ nursery maid.… She is always upon the gad. [[96]]
3. (colloquial).—On the spree (especially of women); and, by implication, on the town.