Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also kid) a fashionable, flashy young man, a rake, a pimp or a thief; thus rolling kiddy, a dandy-cum-thief, or a dandy who dresses like a smart thief.

1729		Life of Thomas Neaves 17: Then Benson and Gale, alias Kiddy George, step’d up, and opening the Doors robb’d the said Mr. Colvart an the other Person of the Watch and Money.
1770		Cheats of London Exposed 11: If the match goes in favour of the fair sportsman, away pikes the kiddy with the money.
1780		R. Tomlinson Sl. Pastoral 3: My time, O ye Kiddies, was happily spent.
1794		Sporting Mag. Feb. III 288/2: His decision, however, did not meet the general wishes of the kiddies, who wanted more fun.
1800		Sporting Mag. Apr. XVI 26/2: Within a rattler stands Moll Flash, / To see the kiddies die.
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 248: kiddy: a thief of the lower order, who, when he is breeched, by a course of successful depredation, dresses in the extreme of vulgar gentility, and affects a knowingness in his air and conversation, which renders him in reality an object of ridicule [...] My kiddy is a familiar term used by these gentry in addressing each other.
1819		P. Egan Key to the Picture of the Fancy going to a Fight 16: [of a bull] The celebrated Donnok, once the pride of the Westminster kids.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 322: The kideys and kiddiesses were footing the double shuffle against each other.
1821		J. Burrowes Life in St George’s Fields 3: Every kiddy who travels with us will confess [...] that Surrey is a world of itself.
1827		Australian (Sydney) 4 July 3/3: News of this long since anticipated ‘turn-up’ being chalked down as a ‘dead cetrainty’ [...] set the Sydney ‘kiddies’ on their pivots.
1831		Navy at Home I 36: He was the most knowing kiddy by many degrees, in the berth; besides, he had a vast fund of low humour, if not wit.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 158: Most of these kiddies might have quoted the facetious Hood.
1842		N.Y. Herald 22 Apr. 2/4: Tom Read’s cellar, known among the blacks and ‘kidneys’ [sic] as Almack’s, located at 25 Howard Street [is raided], and twenty four of the black, white and speckled danseuse [sic] [are arrested].
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 51: Sall was held in great tip among the kiddies and shakes, as well on account of her patter, as her pluck and beauty.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 37: Vel, my kiddies, ve might as vel count up the veek’s earnins, and divide the lucky.
1850		Fast Man 10:1 n.p.: Our West-end kiddies, perchance, never heard of such a place as Shadwell.
1860		R. Nicholson Rogue’s Progress (1966) 120: If ever the philosophic observer wished to realise to his imagination a ‘kiddy,’ David was the finished and appropriate illustration.
1861		Melbourne Punch ‘City Police Court’ 3 Oct. 234/1: The Mayor. – Prisoner at the bar, you are a dimber damber kiddy, but you are done for a ramp.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 21 Sept. n.p.: One ‘kiddy’ [...] was nabbed.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 21 Sept. n.p.: One ‘kiddy’ [...] was nabbed.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 41: Kiddies, young thieves.
1898		Pittsburgh Press (PA) 7 Aug. n.p.: ‘The kiddy out for a prowl, on his own ’ook,’ whispered Tom.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 138: kiddie A young thief.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 33: He [i.e. Vaux] had very definite views on the flash or kiddy (after kid, the flash term for deceive or mislead, still with us in just kidding and similar uses) language spoken by the transportees.

2. a child; cite 1775 is used to a girlfriend.

1775		Gentleman’s Mthly Intelligencer Aug. 409/2: Where could you go my kiddy, have I not messed you and bedded you — and therefore no more palabre, but shove off your boat.
c.1800		Song No. 21 Papers of Francis Place (1819) n.p.: A Kiddy boy from Broad St. Giles no better than a mud lark.
1842		Edinburgh Rev. July 485: ‘Cadgers’ Children’ (kiddies) ‘are so well instructed in the arts of imposition by their parents that they frequently obtain more in money and food than grown-up cadgers’.
1866		J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 279: Take a caution, my kiddy.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1887		W.S. Gilbert ‘Gentle Alice Brown’ Fifty ‘Bab’ Ballads 137: I have helped mamma steal a little kiddy from its dad, / I’ve assisted dear papa in cutting up a little lad.
1891		H. Lawson ‘His Last Ride’ in Roderick (1972) 27: I learnt him to ride when he was kiddy.
1901		Truth (Sydney) 20 Jan. 5/7: I nose that kiddy, / She were in a brothel reared.
1902		Ade Forty Modern Fables 60: I might have been cozily domiciled in a Cheery Cot, reading Ghost Stories to my own little Kiddies.
1904		G.M. Hewett Rat 50: Here I am [...] talking to a kiddy like you, and knowing all the time that you are young and foolish, while I am old and sensible.
1910		H.G. Wells Hist. of Mr Polly (1946) 209: Hullo, Kiddy! You venturing downstairs again?
1914		Observer (Wellington) 21 Dec. 30/2: The grave was pretty new; / Cocky’s wife and kiddy too, / Was asleep there.
1918		K.F. Purdon Dinny on the Doorstep 11: A ripping little kiddie he is too.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 148: Milly was a kiddy then.
1928		‘J. Barbican’ Confessions of a Rum-Runner in Hamilton Men of the Und. 187: I spill him some sob stuff about my wife and sick kiddy.
1935		D. Lamson We Who Are About to Die 170: Look well at him, and go and tell your wives and kiddies of what you see.
1943		in T. Harrisson Mass-Observation War Factory: Report 9: I get back nine o’clock, and they’ve got the wireless on, and Dad’s asleep in the chair, and the kiddies are in bed.
1950		Illus. [advert for Haliborange] 30 Dec. 3: ‘We’ll get your kiddies through the winter,’ say Mr. Halibut and Mr. Orange ‘with drops of tasty Vitamin protection.’.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 126: I understand you’ve got a sick kiddy here.
1961		R.S. Close With Hooves of Brass 159: Oh God! Where are the kiddies?
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 45: The Vicar does good work keeping the kiddies off the streets.
1979		‘Abdul Abul Bul Amir’ in Bold (1979) 2: There’s a stall up the end meant for kiddies, my friend.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 33: She as going to settle down one day and have lots of kiddies.
1999		Guardian G2 13 Sept. 8: Her daughter had a kiddy and potty-training was a problem.
2001		N. Griffiths Sheepshagger 13: There was always something not quite right about him, wasn’t there? Even when he was a kiddie like.

3. a man.

[1728		J. Dalton Narrative of Street-Robberies 2: Kiddey George, a dextrous little Villain, to whom Bellamy was but a Zany or Pupil].
c.1800		Song No. 19 Papers of Francis Place (1819) n.p.: And this is the way to be a rolling Kiddy O.
c.1815		J.K. Paulding Bucktails (1847) II ii: What! you don’t know where you live? What a pretty kiddy you must be.
1837–8		‘Slashing Costermonger’ in Cuckold’s Nest 10: Some kiddies says my calling’s low, / Acause I wends salt cod, O.
c.1840		‘“Taking Off” of Prince Albert’s Inexpressibles’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 36: I vos regularly flabbergasted to hear a kiddy [...] talk in such a way.
1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 25 Nov. 2/5: Oh! gammon you don’t know, my sharp kiddy .
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 49/1: Just at that moment I ‘piped’ my ‘kiddy’ shoving this into his breast.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1883		J. Greenwood Tag, Rag & Co. 187: Here you are, my kiddies!
1908		C. Rook London Side-Lights 75: She always calls me Kiddy.
1923		O. Onions Peace in Our Time 168: That’s all right kiddie.
1958		W. Motley Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960) 206: I got to know a lot of the kiddies.
1960		C. MacInnes Mr Love and Justice (1964) 191: Which cops will it be, I wonder? That bastard who got the box, and I suppose the Kilburn kiddy.
1965		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Confessions 76: They are tough kiddies up there.
1970		R. Fabian Anatomy of Crime 193: Kiddy: A villain who is not yet middle-aged.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 114: The very top kiddies, who are right smooth, see it as a swindle.

4. (later US black) a friend or fellow, a person.

1833		H. Smith Gale Middleton 1 149: Come, come, my kiddies [...] this is to be a square concern.
1849		C. Kingsley Alton Locke (1850) 25: Ven yer pockets it at the Cock and Bottle, my kiddy, yer won’t find much of it left.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 158/1: ‘Sling’ us yer ‘duke,’ my ‘kiddy’ — thunder me stuff if you aren’t a trump!
1870		(con. 1800s) Leeds Times 7 May 6/6: You’re to blame, my kiddy, if you want tin while any other bloke has it.
1908		Magnet 7 Mar. 11: Come along, kiddies!
1912		A. Berkman Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (1926) 143: Best thing for the blues, kiddie.
1925		N. Lucas Autobiog. of a Thief 156: Come on down to Brighton, kiddie, just you and me.
1949		S.J. Perelman letter 26 Feb. in Crowther Don’t Tread on Me (1987) 24: Well, kiddies, it’s lunchtime.
1953		L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 4: All the kiddies got their invites and the sweet little old delosis drilling to the pad, all the cats are sounding their righteous squawks about their ‘hip boots’ laced in place, high and fly and too wet to dry.
1970		J. Bouton Ball Four 22: So what I do kiddies, is work hard, stay in shape, practice.
1998		D. Jenkins Rude Behavior 84: ‘Is something testy going on here? Are we testo, kiddies?’ .

5. stage-coach driver.

1835

Dickens ‘Making a Night of It’ in Slater Dickens’ Journalism I (1994) 266: It was his ambition to do something in the celebrated ‘kiddy’ or stage-coach way.

6. a hat fashionable among small-time but dandified thieves. It featured a broad ribbon passing through a large buckle at its front.

1865

London Rev. 2 Sept. 241/2: The utmost latitude he takes is to put on an ecclesiastical variety of the wide-awake, the last fashion being a hat, apparently bred between an archdeaconal and a ‘kiddy’, with a broad ribbon passing in front through a large black buckle .

7. a pimp.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 644: ca. 1830–1900.

8. as the kiddy/kiddie, the most important person.

2001

K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 1: It was completely geds’ thing he was the kiddie. I owe him big time. I owe him everything.

9. (US black) one who is seen as less important than the speaker.

1971

H.E. Roberts Third Ear n.p.: kiddies n. persons of lower status than the speaker.