tarbaby

See also: tar baby

English

Noun

tarbaby (plural tarbabies)

1. Alternative form of tar baby (“difficult, "sticky" situation”)
   • 1898, Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings:

     ...en de Tar-Baby, she keep on sayin' nothin', twel present'y Brer Rabbit draw back wid his fis', he did, en blip he tuck 'er side er de head. Right dar's whar he broke his merlasses jug. His fis' stuck, en he can't pull loose. De tar hilt 'im. But Tar-Baby, she stay still...
     "'Ef you don't lemme loose, I'll knock you agin," sez Brer Rabbit, sezee, en wid dat he fotch 'er a wipe wid de udder han', en dat stuck. Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' nothin'...
     " 'Tu'n me loose, fo' I kick de natal stuffin' outen you,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee, but de Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' nothin'. She des hilt on, en den Brer Rabbit lose de use er his feet in de same way. Brer Fox, he lay low. Den Brer Rabbit squall out dat ef de Tar-Baby don't tu'n 'im loose he butt 'er cranksided. En den he butted, en his head got stuck...
     "Who ax you fer ter come en strike up a 'quaintance wid dish yer Tar-Baby? En who stuck you up dar whar you iz? Nobody in de roun' worril. You des tuck en jam yo'se'f on dat Tar-Baby widout waitin' fer enny invite," sez Brer Fox, "en dar you is, en dar you'll stay..."

   • 2000, Anthony Lake, The Tar Baby Option: American Policy toward Southern Rhodesia‎^[1], →ISBN:

     It is important to emphasize the basic difference between "tar baby" and the previous American approach to southern Africa. As defended by Morris and its other creators, the new approach was designed to assist peaceful change in the area. The danger was that if it failed to meet its purpose, the new policy would simply provide a thin excuse for normalization of relations with the white regimes.

2. Alternative form of tar baby (“(ethnic slur) black person”)

References

• “tarbaby”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.