Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a prostitute; esp. as naughty dicky-bird.

1824		Annals of Sporting 1 June 403: [He] hearkened to the Syren’s voice, accompanied by the naughty dicky-birds’ tattoo at the glaze of his roost.
1825		‘George Barnwell’ in Universal Songster I 19/1: Now as soon as he’d shut the shop up, / He vent to this naughty dicky bird, / And ven he vent home the next morning, / Blow me if he could speak a vord.
1826		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 13 Aug. 647/1: [headline] The Swell Shopman and the Naughty Dicky Bird.
1839		Crim.-Con. Gaz. 12 Oct. 239/1: What could have been the similarity between the two characters [...] it was not his intimacy with dickey birds.
1849		Sam Sly 7 Apr. 2/2: Master Jack Cut—sh, the hopeful son of the pork butcher [...] not visit a certain tavern in the Strand so often, in search of dicky birds, they will be your ruin.
c.1850		Peeping Tom (London) 21 84/3: Leave your money at home with your wife and [...] the naughty little ‘dicky birds’ will never interfere with you.

2. a louse.

2001

OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 dickies n. head lice [...] dickie head n. child suffering from head lice.

3. a small bird; a chicken or goose.

1804		Sporting Mag. Mar. XXIII 304/1: [heading] On Dicky Birds, Wasps, And The Like.
1820		T. Creevey letter 23 Jan. in Gore Creevey Papers (1948) 179: She is like one of her gold and silver musical dickey birds. [...] She begins to sing at eleven o’clock.
1837		Comic Almanack Feb. 79: The Cockney Sportsman grounds his arms, / And dicky birds are free from harms.
1841		‘The Horticultural Wife’ Dublin Comic Songster 22: A cherry that’s left for the dicky birds to pick.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 64: She went ramp cranky [...] The pretty little dickey-birds all flew to pot. / She pison’d the old man’s ass, and smashed his hat, / Kicked out the dog; and, then, she shot the cat.
1858		R.S. Surtees Ask Mamma 269: I have been at the chasse of de small dicky-bird – tom-tit – cock-robin.
1866		R. Hallam Wadsley Jack 11: She sed to me ’a I wor a dear, ducky, darling dickey-bird.
1874		J. Greenwood Wilds of London (1881) 27: Any dicky-bird of mine will pine and die if the smallest quantity of tainted matter is allowed to remain in his house.
1887		W.S. Gilbert ‘Baines Carew, Gentleman’ Fifty ‘Bab’ Ballads 71: My wife (in other matters sane) / Pretends that I’m a Dicky bird! / She makes me sing, ‘Too-whit, too-wee!’.
1890		Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 11 Oct. 5/1: Who says the dicky birds are rude, / Because they show their legs so nude.
1898		‘R. Andom’ Martha and I 251: I asked straight for a goose. [...] ‘Yes; prime ’uns,’ was the reply. ‘Here, Bill,’—to an assistant—‘chuck up a dicky for this toff.’.
c.1900		Collins & Godfrey [perf. Vesta Victoria] Now I have to call him Father 🎵 I used to be as happy as the dickies on the trees.
1908		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Rathskeller & the Rose’ in Voice of the City (1915) 179: Member of the famous ‘Dickey-bird’ octette.
1916		C.J. Dennis ‘The Game’ Moods of Ginger Mick 109: Ho! the sky’s as blue as blazes, an’ the sun is shinin’ bright, / An’ the dicky birds is singin’ over’ead.
1924		S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 87: Wish ter ’eaven ’E’d take it inter ’Is ’ead ter send a little dicky-bird down ere wif sommat tasty fer me!
1933		E. Pound letter Apr. in Paige (1971) 245: The toodle oot of the dicky bird.
1940		N. Mitford Pigeon Pie 138: Bring your Bow-wow, your Puss-puss, your Dickie-bird.
1960		G.W. Target Teachers (1962) 42: A little dicky-bird must have told me.
1967		W. Manus Mott the Hoople 9: There is a sound more endearing than the burble of a dickeybird.
1975		Eilis Brady All in! All in! 81: Two little dickie-birds / Sitting on the wall. / One named Peter, / The other named Paul.
1999		Indep. Rev. 23 June 12: Use of shingle or mirrors which might confuse dickie birds.

4. a professional singer.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 305/1: from ca. 1870.

5. (US, also bird) an informer, a betrayer.

1903		H. Hapgood Autobiog. of a Thief 193: I was tipped off to you by a Dicky Bird (stool pigeon) damn him!
1920		B. Cronin Timber Wolves 239: ‘I’d give a tidy bit to know who put you on to this game,’ he said finally. ‘A little dicky-bird.’.
1940		O. Strange Sudden Takes the Trail 245: ‘How did yu know I’d gone a-tall?’ ‘Oh, dicky-birds tell tales.’ ‘Yeah, dirty dickie-birds.’.
1959		Murtagh & Harris Who Live In Shadow (1960) 139: They’ll all chirp. All junkies are potential birds.

6. used as a term of affection to a female lover.

1913

Mills & Scott ‘Don’t Say a Word to the Wife’ 🎵 As they listened to the band, in her muff, she squeezed his hand / And he called her his little dicky bird.

7. the penis [bird n.³ (1)].

1991		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper From The Inside 55: I was the president of the Van Gogh club until Garry David cut his penis off [...] When the dicky birds start hitting the pavement I thought it was time to resign.
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 104: I don’t mind that I had my ears hacked off, but the dickie bird stays where it is.