Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A man who affects extreme elegance in clothes and manners; a fop.
  • noun Something very good or agreeable.
  • adjective Suggestive of or attired like a dandy; foppish.
  • adjective Fine; good.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A small glass: as, a dandy of punch.
  • noun A boatman of the Ganges. Also spelled dandie and dandee.
  • noun A conveyance used in India, consisting of a strong cloth slung like a hammock to a bamboo staff, and carried by two or more men. The traveler can either sit sidewise or lie on his back.
  • noun A man who attracts attention by the unusual finery of his dress and a corresponding fastidiousness or display of manner; a man of excessive neatness and primness in his attire and action; an exquisite; a fop.
  • noun Something very neat or dainty. —
  • noun An accessory and diminutive appendix or attachment to a machine.
  • noun In tin-plate manuf., a running-out fire for melting pig-iron, the stack being built upon an open framework of iron, so that the melter has access to his fire from all sides.
  • Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a dandy or fop; foppish: as, dandy manners.
  • Neat; dainty; trim; gay.
  • noun Nautical, a vessel rigged as a sloop, and having also a jigger-mast.
  • noun Same as dandy-roller.
  • noun See dengue.
  • noun A roller placed on a machine in advance of another, to perform a preliminary operation.
  • noun See dandy-roller.
  • noun An open-work basket or vessel, used cither to carry fuel, or to confine fuel in a larger grate, or to hold pig-iron in a furnace-hearth for preliminary heating.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who affects special finery or gives undue attention to dress; a fop; a coxcomb.
  • noun A sloop or cutter with a jigger on which a lugsail is set.
  • noun A small sail carried at or near the stern of small boats; -- called also jigger, and mizzen.
  • noun A dandy roller. See below.
  • noun a yard whalebone brush.
  • noun See Dengue.
  • noun a kind of fishing line to which are attached several crosspieces of whalebone which carry a hook at each end.
  • noun a roller sieve used in machines for making paper, to press out water from the pulp, and set the paper.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Like a dandy, foppish.
  • adjective Very good; better than expected but not as good as could be.
  • adjective Almost first rate.
  • noun A man very concerned about his clothes and his appearance.
  • noun UK, nautical A yawl, or a small after-sail on a yawl.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a man who is much concerned with his dress and appearance
  • noun a sailing vessel with two masts; a small mizzen is aft of the rudderpost
  • adjective very good

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps short for jack-a-dandy, fop.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

This definition is lacking an etymology or has an incomplete etymology. You can help Wiktionary by giving it a proper etymology.

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Examples

  • Say, that's a dandy pin you've got on, simply _dandy_!

    Peggy Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards 1896

  • What amuses me most is that the ultra-conservatives who yell and scream about casino gambling being a sin, etc., think it's freekin dandy when Wall Street invents transactions to do the same thing and purposefully makes them so complicated that it's hard to discern that it's just plain old gambling at its core.

    Bill Clinton questions if Goldman Sachs broke law 2010

  • So your dandy is promoting a 60s era NIMBY mindset that is likely just headed towards making the socially disadvantaged even more entrenched in their poverty, and more desperate in their behaviours.

    Boarding the House | Her Bad Mother 2007

  • It was Susan Sontag, who said that being a dandy was a way of being an individual in an age of mass culture.

    Media Maxine 2009

  • In a manner, the dandy was the male counterpart of the professional beauty: he had no other occupation than to devote himself to being clever, witty, well-dressed and amusing.

    The Dandy | Edwardian Promenade 2008

  • The Dandy In a manner, the dandy was the male counterpart ...

    Dressing the Edwardian Man | Edwardian Promenade 2008

  • The Dandy In a manner, the dandy was the male counterpart ...

    The Twin Bed | Edwardian Promenade 2008

  • In a manner, the dandy was the male counterpart of the professional beauty: he had no other occupation than to devote himself to being clever, witty, well-dressed and amusing.

    2008 April | Edwardian Promenade 2008

  • "What! Have you quite forgotten the titled dandy for whom you were near breaking your heart three years ago?

    For Woman's Love Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth 1859

  • And smart, good-natured, well-spoken, and elegant enough to be called a dandy.

    American Connections James Burke 2007

Comments

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  • In North American sports reporting, a noun:

    "the San Jose Sharks' offensive dynamo snapped a deadlock, scalding the locals with a late-game dandy" - Vancouver Sun, 1-4-08

    or an adjective:

    "Gagner ... beat the Ducks with a dandy shootout move on J.S. Giguere" - Vancouver Sun, 12-26-07

    January 11, 2008

  • ...money is indispensable to those who make a cult of their emotions; but the dandy does not aspire to money as something essential; this crude passion he leaves to vulgar mortals; he would be perfectly content with a limitless credit at the bank.

    -Baudelaire, The Painter of Modern Life

    November 13, 2008

  • Female equivalent is / was dandizette.

    May 22, 2018