civvy
Americannoun
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a civilian
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(plural) civilian dress as opposed to uniform
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civilian life
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of civvy
First recorded in 1885–90; civ(ilian) + -y 2
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:
“We need to find who they are, extract them from what they are doing, second them to civvy street” — referring to the nonmilitary world — “and attach them to firms.”
From New York Times ● Sep. 27, 2021
On returning to civvy street he displayed a mistrust of big organisations—he made a career with Texas’s scrappy independents rather than with the local giants—and a gambler’s cunning.
From Economist ● Aug. 1, 2013
Most of my civvy pals are just at college or in a boring job.
From BBC ● Feb. 16, 2011
Having been hired in 1991 to provide percussive cover for the drunken antics of original drummer Gary Young, he had long prepared himself for the inevitable return to civvy street.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 27, 2010
I'm just a plain old batman gone civvy.'
From "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro
“I’ve been in the army 14 years and I chose to join. These guys are all civvies … and we are investing everything we can because we know they are going to need it.”
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 10, 2022
“Back in your civvies, I see,” says my colleague who had previously claimed not to have noticed.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 26, 2018
At the Bataclan five months earlier, when I had met him, he had been relaxing with a drink, in his "civvies".
From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2017
Hams put on his civvies, boarded his plane and returned to his wife and life in Minnesota.
From Washington Times ● May 7, 2016
But here, in a library and in his civvies, he wasn’t so frightening, was some-how ... denatured.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
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.
