gardyloo


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gardyloo

(ˈɡɑːdɪˌluː)
n
archaic a warning cry given before throwing dirty water from a window
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

gardyloo

- A warning cry derived from French gare de l'eau, "beware of the water"—referring to the water and slops that were once thrown by servants from higher stories of a building onto the street.
See also related terms for servants.
Farlex Trivia Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive ?
The line was rigged 150ft across Gardyloo Gully in the Nevis range.
Marcin, 36, was reported missing near Observatory Gully and Gardyloo Gully on Ben Nevis on January 21.
It would be really easy to slip over the edge of Gardyloo Gully while you're being blown and battered and pushed off the track.
And on the way down, you have to negotiate Gardyloo Gully on your right then Five Finger Gully on your left.
King Gardyloo, as he was named, had in turn tricked other down-and-outs into exchanging their souls to become a member of his royal court.
Editor Guy Procter told The Guardian he was "quite gutted at this mistake," but he was sure the magazine's astute readers wouldn't heed the misdirection and plummet a thousand feet into Gardyloo Gully.
"Trail omitted the first bearing of 231 degrees, which leads you away from Gardyloo Gully and only printed the second dogleg bearing that leads you off the summit."
One of my favorites is this gardyloo from Herman Melville: "No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be who have tried it."
IT'S after the call "Gardyloo!" - the cry Edinburgh tenement dwellers gave as they emptied their chamberpots on to the streets.
Little has changed, it seems, from the bad old days of "gardyloo", when the capital's slops were thrown out of windows into the streets below.
Mountaineers could take a compass bearing from the summit cairn which would lead them to the first pole at the top of Gardyloo Gully.
TOILETS are called loos because of "gardyloo" - the cry Edinburghers gave as they emptied their chamberpots onto the streets!