gammy adj.1
1. (UK Und.) bad; usu. in combs. below.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Liverpool Mercury 14 Jan. 38/2: Now in summer, at Hull, me and three more men might get six to eight pounds a week a piece, but we had to [...] keep a sharp look out, for its very gammy (3) [...] (3) Gammy. A town where they take them sharoer than others. | |
| Great World of London I 6: The slang term ‘gammy’ (bad) comes fom the Welsh gam, crooked, queer. | |
| Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 44: gammy, bad, unfavourable, poor tempered. [...] gammy-vial (Ville), a town where the police will not let persons hawk. | |
| (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor I 218/2: There are generally two or three persons in a village reported to be ‘gammy,’ that is (unfavourable). | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Melbourne Punch ‘City Police Court’ 3 Oct. 234/1: The Mayor. – You are as gammy a gonnof as ever I saw, and I expect your doxy’s as bad. | |
| Liverpool Mercury 2 Dec. 3/2: No villages that are any way ‘gammy’ are ever mentioned. | |
| Sl. Dict. 173: Gammy bad, unfavourable, poor tempered. Those householders who are known enemies to the street folk and tramps are pronounced by them to be gammy Gammy-vial (Ville) a town where the police will not let persons hawk. | |
| Manchester Courier 28 Jan. 10/6: Our hero was taken before the ‘gammy’ parson-magistrate. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Dundee Courier (Scot.) 8 Sept. 7/3: There were several ‘travellers’ in the lodging house, and all [...] assured me that the town was not ‘gammy,’ and that I could ‘call’ it without fear from one end to the other. | |
| Hampshire Teleg. 31 Mar. 11/5: [A petition] with ‘gammy monekurs,’ or forged names, cannot be had for less than half-a-crown. | |
| Police! 236: Manufacturers of spurious soaps, oils, and of many other deceptive commodities [...] in their own slang, are described as ‘gammy vendors’. | |
| Shields Dly Gaz. 19 July 5/1: He was travelling through Berkshire, a county well known to the fraternity for being ‘gammy’. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 31: Gammy, bad, forced, spurious, etc. | |
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 6 Mar. 4/1: The faking fighters [...] simply transferred their gammy game to the rival club. |
2. (UK Und.) fake, counterfeit.
| Sunderland Dly Echo 1 June 2/5: On his waistcoat breast dangled what in classical vernacular is called a ‘gammy 18 carat gold chain’. | |
| Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 4: Gammy - Bad. Gammy Stuff - Spurious medicine and other articles. | |
| Hants. Teleg. 31 Mar. 11/5: A petition [...] with ‘gammy monekurs’, or forged names, cannot be had for less than half-a-crown. | |
| Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 15 Mar. 11/2: I am often defrauded by people who put ‘gammy’ money into my collection box. |
In compounds
(UK Und.) counterfeit coins, thus gammy lour pitcher, one who passes counterfeit.
| Dict. of the Flash or Cant Lang. 168: Schofel pitchers work the bulls and gypsies make and plant the gammy-lowr swags. | |
| Vulgar Tongue 39: Schofel pitchers work the bulls and gypsies make and plant the gammy-lowr swags. | |
| Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 60: ‘gammy lour,’ bad money. | |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859]. |
| Sl. Dict. 173: gammy sometimes means forged, as [...] gammy lowr, counterfeit coin. | |
| Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 4: Gammy Lowr - Bad money [...] Gammy Lowr Pitchers - Utterers of base coin. | |
| Police! 321: Bad money ... Gammy lower. |
(UK Und.) a forged signature.
| Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 44: gammy sometimes means forged, as gammy-moneker, a forged signature. | |
| (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor I 313/2: Ditto, with gammy monekurs (forged names). | |
| Sl. Dict. 173: gammy sometimes means forged, as ‘gammy-monniker,’ a forged signature. |
(UK Und.) spurious soap or medicine.
| Dict. of the Flash or Cant Lang. 168: The crocusses pad through every wild, to fence the gammy stuff. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Vocabulum 39: gummey-stuff [sic] medicine. | |
| Sl. Dict. 173: gammy sometimes means forged, as [...] gammy stuff, spurious medicine. | |
| Sydney Sl. Dict. 10/2: The padding ken of Sally Flicks, who’s got a new moniker, which is Lushing Loo, is full of bug-hunters, and shallow coves, and fellows on the high fly. The two crocuses are gadding the pad to fence their gammy stuff. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 34: Gummey, [sic] medicine. |