Meaning
An old Jamaican moonlight ring game in which children lay a friend down and trace the outline of their body on the ground with shells, bottle-tops, flowers, or stones by the light of the full moon, then sing and dance around the shining shape — the 'moonshine baby'. Tied to the ring-game song 'moonshine tonight', it belongs to the vanished world of children's play outdoors by moonlight, before television and current.
Examples
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Long time, pickney play moonshine darling inna di full moon.
Long ago, children played moonshine darling in the full moon.
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Dem lay out di shell fi mek di moonshine baby.
They laid out the shells to make the moonshine baby.
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Moonshine tonight, come mek wi dance.
Moonshine tonight, come let us dance (the ring-game song).
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Long time wi play moonshine darlin inna di moonlight.
Long ago we played 'moonshine darling' in the moonlight.
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Lay dung mek wi trace out di moonshine baby.
Lie down so we can outline the moonshine baby.
Origin
From 'moonshine' (moonlight) + 'darling/baby'; a moonlight ring game. See Ring game, Chinese skip.
How it’s used
An old moonlight ring game outlining a 'moonshine baby' on the ground. See Ring game, Dandy shandy.