DCHP-1 Online

hurdy-gurdy [after the musical instrument] B.C., Hist.

• 1 n. a dance-hall girl who frequented the saloons and dance-halls of mining camps during the Cariboo gold rush.

  See also: hurdy  hurdy-gurdy girl  

  • 1866  (1914)  
    Bonnie are the hurdies O,
    The German hurdy-gurdies, O!
    The daftest hour that e'er I spent
    Was dancing wi' the hurdies, O!
  • 1935  From the dance halls . . . came fair, flaxen-haired, straight-bodied girls arm-in-arm, most of them German or Scandinavians popularly known as the 'Hurdy Gurdies', with whom for a dollar and a drink one might dance, but nothing more. . . .
  • 1950  There were plump, painted German dance hall girls, the "hurdy-gurdies" who demanded pay for every dance

• 2 n. a low-class dance hall where dancing-partners could be hired.

  See also: hurdy(-gurdy) house  

  • 1937  The native dance hall girls had gone to their villages, and the hurdy-gurdy had closed its doors.