dicky
/ˈdɪki/
dicky noun: a louse.
Noun (1)
dicky (plural dickies)
- A louse.
- Dicky dirt = a shirt, meaning a shirt with a collar.
- A detachable shirt front, collar or bib.
- Synonyms:
- tommy
- A hat, especially (in the US) a stiff hat or derby, and (in the UK) a straw hat.
- 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 aunt's servant, with a huge bandbox, on the dickey.1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 134–135
- A seat in a carriage, for the driver.
- 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
- the buttocks.
- Synonyms:
- 'tocks, arse, arse cheeks, ass, ass cheeks, back, backside, batty, behind, blessed assurance
- A leather apron for a gig, etc.
- A small bird; a dicky-bird.
- 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. Nothing. Not a dicky.2013, Michael Dobbs, A Ghost at the Door
- A pilot.
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- A hedge sparrow.
- A donkey.
- 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 […]1896, Augustus Jessopp, Random Roaming, and Other Papers, page 181
- A haddock.
Adjective (1)
dicky (comparative dickier, superlative dickiest)
- In bad condition; weak, faulty, unreliable, doubtful, troublesome.
- He had a dicky heart.
- I've got a dicky tummy.
Noun (2)
dicky (plural dickies)
Adjective (2)
dicky (comparative dickier, superlative dickiest)
- Like a dick, foolish or obnoxious.
Proper noun capitalized: Dicky
Dicky
- A diminutive of the male given name Richard.
dicky meaning in Tamil and Malayalam
dicky in Tamil
- சுமையக மூடி
dicky in Malayalam
- unhealthy, weak, ailing
- കരുത്തില്ലാത്ത, അശക്ത, ശക്തിയില്ലാത്ത, ദുർബ്ബലമായ, കെല്പില്ലാത്ത, ആരോഗ്യമില്ലാത്ത
Synonyms of dicky
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Forms of dicky
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | dickies |
| alternative form | dickey |
| alternative form | dickie |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | dickier |
| superlative | dickiest |
| Proper noun | |
| alternative form | Dickey |
| alternative form | Dickie |
Origin of dicky
From Dicky, pet form of Richard. * In cover/apron senses: perhaps from English dialect dick (“leather apron”) + -y; perhaps from Dutch dek (“a cover”).
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.
From dick + -y (diminutive suffix), apparently originally punningly after Etymology 1.
Words formed from dicky
Phrases with dicky
Words that rhyme with dicky
Questions about dicky
- What does dicky mean?
- Dicky means a louse.
- What is dicky in Tamil?
- Dicky in Tamil is சுமையக மூடி. See Dicky meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is dicky?
- Dicky can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce dicky?
- Dicky is pronounced /ˈdɪki/.
- What is the plural of dicky?
- The plural of dicky is dickies.
Words near dicky in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dicky (page history and authors); Dicky (page history and authors); dicky (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dicky (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-dicky.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Dicky.wav.
Cite this entry: “dicky.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dicky. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.