dicky
Americannoun
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dickies
plural
noun
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a woman's false blouse front, worn to fill in the neck of a jacket or low-cut dress
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a man's false shirt front, esp one worn with full evening dress
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Also called: dicky bow. a bow tie
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an informal name for a donkey, esp a male one
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Also called: dickybird. dickeybird. a child's word for a bird, esp a small one
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US and Canadian name: rumble seat. a folding outside seat at the rear of some early cars
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Also called: boot. an enclosed compartment of a car for holding luggage, etc, usually at the rear
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of dicky1
C18 (in the senses: donkey, shirt front): from Dickey, diminutive of Dick (name); the relationship of the various senses is obscure
Origin of dicky2
C18: perhaps from the name Dick in the phrase as queer as Dick's hatband feeling ill
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He is supremely fit and has been reinvigorated by his shiny new left knee, though he has recently been kiboshed by a dicky hamstring.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2024
The Plummer brothers - Tremaine, Tristan and Twaine - opted for a mix of cravats and dicky bows to pimp up their navy blue suits.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2022
Even if you’re not feeling peaky, it might be worth faking a dicky hip during a boring bit.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 23, 2019
Tim Roache, the GMB's general secretary, said the firm had conducted a "PR blitz ... without mentioning a dicky bird about cutting staff benefits".
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2018
Johnny’s collar and dicky were a sodden paperish mess.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
Since June, Parsons-Meares has been rushing to fulfill orders for 178 pairs of pants, 120 vests and 125 dickies for “Hamilton” alone.
From New York Times ● Sep. 7, 2021
To make one costume seem like many, women are buying in vast quantities dickies, jabots, fichus, gilets, ruches, berthas, bibs, piccadillies, collets, modesties and ruffs.
From Time Magazine Archive
He turned to Katie and explained: “So many years comes this girl by me to buy dickies and paper collars for the papa. Now for a whole year already, she don’t come.”
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
The dickies, snugly curled under the lining of a fur cap or narrow-brimmed hat, came forth to be arranged under neck-ties of gay hues and flowing dimensions.
From The Old Homestead by Ann S. (Ann Sophia) Stephens
Most of them, faced and porticoed with florid pillars, were mere dickies opening upon nothing, and only the huge armorial bearings showed that they had ever been owned.
From To the Gold Coast for Gold A Personal Narrative in Two Volumes.—Volume I by Sir Richard Francis Burton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
