Toby

views updated Jun 11 2018

Toby male forename (diminutive of Tobias); the name of the trained dog introduced (in the first half of the 19th century) into the Punch and Judy show, which wears a frill round its neck.
toby jug a jug or mug in the form of a stout old man wearing a long and full-skirted coat and a three-cornered hat. The term comes from the mid 19th century (as a pet form of the given name Tobias), and is said to come from an 18th-century poem about Toby Philpot (with a pun on fill pot), a soldier who liked to drink.

Toby

views updated Jun 08 2018

Toby familiar form of the name Tobias used as the name of
1. a jug or mug in the form of a stout old man with a three-cornered hat,

2. a trained dog in the Punch-and-Judy show. XIX.