dicky
Americannoun
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
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
There are Matt Smith-style dicky bows aplenty, along with tweed jackets, fezzes, sonic screwdrivers, Cyberman masks, Tom Baker scarves, even Tardis dresses.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 14, 2013
He had on a fresh dicky and collar and a carefully tied bow tie.
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
It had gone through the town like wildfire that he had written to someone in Redlintie to send him on another suit of clothes and four dickies.
From Sentimental Tommy The Story of His Boyhood by Barrie, J. M. (James Matthew)
Some men went so far as to wear "dickies," that is to say, false shirt fronts made of paper, but this was considered a silly cheat.
From A Son of the Middle Border by Garland, Hamlin
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.
