dicky

Like a dick, foolish or obnoxious.

Adjective informal, vulgar

  1. Like a dick, foolish or obnoxious.

Origin

Etymology tree English dick Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y English dicky From dick + -y (adjectival suffix).

Forms

dickier dickiest

Related

dicky up

Adjective colloquial

  1. In bad condition; weak, faulty, unreliable, doubtful, troublesome.
    • He had a dicky heart.
    • I've got a dicky tummy.
    • 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;...

Origin

Unknown. Perhaps a use of Dicky, hypocoristic form of Dick, perhaps playing on its resemblance to tricky, sticky, or other similar-sounding words. Alternatively, perhaps an alteration of dickens.

Forms

dickier dickiest dickey

Noun colloquial

  1. A louse.
  2. Dicky dirt = a shirt, meaning a shirt with a collar.
  3. A detachable shirt front, collar or bib.

    Synonyms: tommy

  4. A hat, especially (in the US) a stiff hat or derby, and (in the UK) a straw hat.
  5. A seat behind a carriage or early motor car, for a servant.
    • ...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...
  6. A seat in a carriage, for the driver.
  7. The luggage storage compartment of a sedan/saloon style car.
    • Can you open the dicky for me?
    • Back and forth, back and forth, go our mothers on their secret missions, carrying their sinister freight in the dicky of our Morris Minor. - 1988, Bapsi Sidhwa, Ice-Candy Man, Daunt Books (2016), page 184:

    Synonyms: boot trunk

  8. the buttocks.

    Synonyms: 'tocks arse arse cheeks ass ass cheeks back backside batty behind blessed assurance booty botty bottom bum bum cheeks buns butt butt cheeks buttocks caboose cheeks derriere dicky fanny

  9. A leather apron for a gig, etc.
  10. A small bird; a dicky-bird.
  11. An insignificant sound or thing; dicky-bird.
    • 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....
  12. A pilot.

Origin

From Dicky, pet form of Richard. * In cover/apron senses: perhaps from English dialect dick (“leather apron”) + -y; perhaps from Dutch dek (“a cover”).

Forms

dickies dickey dickie

Derived

dicky-bird dicky bow

Noun slang, vulgar

  1. A penis (dick).

Origin

From dick + -y (diminutive suffix), apparently originally punningly after Etymology 1.

Forms

dickies