duppy
/ˈdʌpi/
duppy noun: a ghost or spirit, often appearing in the form of a dog barking or howling through the night.
Noun
duppy (plural duppies)
- A ghost or spirit, often appearing in the form of a dog barking or howling through the night.
- They firmly believe in the apparition of spectres. Those of deceased friends are duppies; others, of more hostile and tremendous aspect, like our raw-head-and-bloody-bones, are called bugaboos.1774, Edward Long, The History of Jamaica, volume 2, page 416
- No man walked alone for fear of the duppies under the trees, or the rolling calf, the ghastly animal that comes rolling towards you along the ground, its legs in chains and flames coming out of its nostrils.1954, Ian Fleming, “The Undertaker's Wind”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 186
- Synonyms:
- jumbie
- A drawn game of noughts and crosses (in Jamaica tii-taa-tuo).
Verb
duppy (third-person singular simple present duppies, present participle duppying, simple past and past participle duppied)
- To kill; to murder.
- He refers to his intention to kill a schoolgirl pregnant with Jolie's unborn baby – who the pair believe is giving Jolie undue hassle. "I'll get da fiend to duppy her den," he writes.2008, Kingsley Ogundele, online message quoted in 2010 January 27, Rob Sharp, "CSI: Chatroom", The Independent
- He duppied my bredren and as long as I could remember Paps was telling me not to trust the Feds.2011, Alex Wheatle, The Dirty South, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 176
- Synonyms:
- annihilate, bag, baptize, bereave of life, blight, bring down, bump off, bury, cack, compromised to a permanent end
- To excel in.
- I duppied every rave.2011, Kano, guest on Lethal Bizzle, "Pow 2011"
Synonyms of duppy
- jumbie
- annihilate
- bag
- baptize
- bereave of life
- blight
- bring down
- bump off
- bury
- cack
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of duppy
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | duppies |
| alternative form | duffy |
| alternative form | duppie |
| alternative form | doopy |
| alternative form | dupie |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | duppies |
| present participle | duppying |
| past participle | duppied |
| past | duppied |
Origin of duppy
Jamaica, circa 18th century. From Bube dupe (“ghost”) (compare Akan adɔpe).
Words formed from duppy
- duppy bird
- duppy calalu
- duppy cap
- duppy-catcher
- duppy cherry
- duppy-conqueror
- duppy cucumber
- duppy cup
- duppy fee-fee
- duppy fiddle
- duppy fly-trap
- duppy gun
- duppy melon
- duppy needle
- duppy peas
- duppy pindar
- duppy poison
- duppy pop-gun
- duppy pumpkin
- duppy riding-horse
- duppy soursop
- duppy tomato
- duppy umbrella
Words that rhyme with duppy
Questions about duppy
- What does duppy mean?
- Duppy means a ghost or spirit, often appearing in the form of a dog barking or howling through the night.
- What part of speech is duppy?
- Duppy can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce duppy?
- Duppy is pronounced /ˈdʌpi/.
- What is the plural of duppy?
- The plural of duppy is duppies.
Words near duppy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: duppy (page history and authors). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-duppy.wav.
Cite this entry: “duppy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/duppy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.