toby

noun

1. A drinking mug, in the shape of a human head with a hat atop; a Toby jug.
2. (British, New-Zealand)The valve that mediates the connection between a mains water-supply and a premises's own plumbing.
3. (UK, dated, slang)The road or highway.

   “1931, Eric Blair (the real name of George Orwell), "Hop-picking" in The New Statesman of 17th October 1931. It is no wonder that itinerant agricultural workers travel on the toby and sleep in casual wards between jobs.”

4. (US, dated, regional)A kind of inferior cigar of a long slender shape, tapered at one end.
5. The Moorish idol, Zanclus cornutus
6. Any of several species of pufferfish in the genus Canthigaster
7. The superintendent of a street market.

   “The Boy shakes his head and the Toby comes on to the market wielding a claw hammer.”

   “But every market was reputed to be run the same way. The Toby was the godfather.”

   “At first, neither of them seemed to notice it until the Toby (market traders name for the market manager) in charge of the market started shouting and waving his arms telling the driver that he couldn't park there.”

name

1. A male given name from Hebrew.

   “By my troth, Sir Toby, you must come in earlier o' nights: your cousin, my lady, takes great exceptions to your ill hours.”

   “And for my own part, said my uncle Toby, though I should blush to boast of myself, Trim - yet had my name been Alexander, I could have done no more at Namur than my duty.”

   “His name was Toby Bell and he was entirely alone in his criminal contemplations. [ - - - ] As to the Toby, which might by the sound of it set him higher on the English social ladder than his provenance deserved, it derived from nothing more elevated than his father's pride in the holy man Tobias, whose wondrous filial virtues are set down in the ancient scripts.”

   ““How to hide, survive and use the urban environment as a sanctuary was a challenge but the soldiers adapted to the real-life challenges,” ETG Commander Col. Toby Till explained.”

2. (rare)A female given name from Hebrew.
3. A surname originating as a patronymic.
4. (UK)in the traditional Punch and Judy show the showman's (live) dog trained to take part in the puppet show and to carry a bag around the audience soliciting donations.