dicky
See also: Dicky
English edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
From dick + -y (diminutive suffix).
- In cover/apron senses: perhaps from English dialect dick (“leather apron”) + -y; perhaps from Dutch dek (“a cover”).
Alternative forms edit
Noun edit
dicky (plural dickies)
- (colloquial) A louse.
- (Cockney rhyming slang) Dicky dirt = a shirt, meaning a shirt with a collar.
- A detachable shirt front, collar or bib.
- (slang, dated) A hat, especially (in the US) a stiff hat or derby, and (in the UK) a straw hat.
- (dated) A seat behind a carriage or early motor car, for a servant.
- 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 134–135:
- ...and she was just in time to see Mr. Boyne Sillery hand her aunt into a carriage, jump in himself, when it drove off with a rapidity which scarcely allowed her to observe that a large imperial was on the top, and her aunt's servant, with a huge bandbox, on the dickey.
- (dated) A seat in a carriage, for the driver.
- (South Asia) The luggage storage compartment of a sedan/saloon style car.
- (historical) A leather apron for a gig, etc.
- A small bird; a dicky-bird.
- (idiomatic, UK, in negative constructions) An insignificant sound or thing; dicky-bird.
- 2013, Michael Dobbs, A Ghost at the Door:
- Oh, she landed at Heathrow all right, like you said, but since then your Miss Ranelagh seems to have vanished as effectively as my overdue promotion. Not used her credit card, her Internet account, her mobile phone. Nothing. Not a dicky.
- (UK, military slang) A pilot.
- (UK, dialect) A hedge sparrow.
- (UK, dialect) A donkey.
- 1896, Augustus Jessopp, Random Roaming, and Other Papers, page 181:
- I've heard grandfather say that when Mr. Priest was at his best there was scores o' young gents as used to come to school as day-boys, 'cause there was no room for 'em to board; and they used to come on dickies […]
- A haddock.
Derived terms edit
Descendants edit
Adjective edit
dicky (comparative dickier, superlative dickiest)
- (colloquial) doubtful, troublesome; in poor condition
- He had a dicky heart.
- 1867, Edmund Yates, Broken to Harness: A Story of English Domestic Life, page 311:
- Ribald boys stuck the red-covered books of domestic household expenditure which they carried into their breasts, and swaggered by with heads erect; others openly expressed their opinion that it was “all dicky” with him; […]
Etymology 2 edit
Adjective edit
dicky (comparative dickier, superlative dickiest)