Green’s Dictionary of Slang

civvie adj.

civilian.

1914		‘Bartimeus’ ‘Why the Gunner went Ashore’ in Naval Occasions 286: There’s a cutter to go ashore in; time some of you young bloods were climbing into your ‘civvy’ suits.
c.1918		B. Bennett ‘A Soldier’s Soliloquy’ in Billy Bennett’s Third Budget 13: The sergeant said, ‘What were you in civvy life?’.
1919		C.H. Thorp Handful of Ausseys 249: It seems so lorng [sic] since I left me civvie job.
1921		N&Q 12 Ser. IX 345: Civvy-kip. A feather-bed.
1925		‘Bartimeus’ ‘The Citizen’ in Great Security 207: That there Pigmy brought down a civvy cove – Political Officer they calls ’im.
1930		(con. 1914–18) ‘When This Blasted War Is Over’ Brophy & Partridge Songs and Sl. of the British Soldier 63: When I get my civvy clothes on, / O, how happy I shall be!
1942		‘The Balloonatic’s Song’ in C.H. Ward-Jackson Airman’s Song Book (1945) 142: When civvy folks are tucked in tight.
1945		K. Amis letter 11 Aug. in Leader (2000) 20: I may see you ‘out there’ – if either of us go, or perhaps as I rather hope in civvy life.
1950		(con. 1936–46) K.S. Prichard Winged Seeds (1984) 310: I feel outside the ordinary civvy way of life.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 788: As soon as they were out of the house he got up and dressed himself in the civvy slacks they had washed the blood out of for him.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 156: When he took his civvy clothes off he lost his shoulder padding.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 47: Knew him in civvie life.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 5: My rather threadbare civvy whistle felt rather cold.
1972		(con. 1930s–40s) N. Conway Bloods 33: It was the civvy nags we got from the farmers that did it.
1972		N. Conway Bloods n.p.: One mixed-up semi-soldier from civvie-land, doing his first twist of the two-on and four-off, successfully challenged the visiting Orderly Officer [BS].
1977		(con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 47: He was a school teacher in civvy life.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 21: This new civvy blonde piece is handing oot the notes.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 42/2: civvie life n. civilian life, life in general society outside prison.
2002		(con. 1918) M. McGrath Silvertown 61: The war has ended now and Moses’ is turning out civvie suits for middle class men.
2020		D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 102: His civvy job as a diesel mechanic.

In compounds

civvie street (n.) (also civvy street)

the world of civilian life, usu. service use.

1941		G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 54: Now you bring them back, do you? Could you do that in civvy street?
1947		Maryborough Chron. (Qld) 26 Mar. 4/4: Civvy Street is a pretty ‘drack’ affair after Army life in many ways.
1951		(con. 1941) E. Lambert Twenty Thousand Thieves 214: I was thinkin’ of going in for S.P.-ing meself when I get back to civvy street.
1956		G.M. Glaskin ‘See You in the Morning’ in Drake-Brockman West Coast Stories (1959) 58: You’ll get ‘private’, you bastard, when you get on civvy street.
1962		A. Wesker Chips with Everything I ix: I’m going to get something out of this mob – it’s going to cost them something keeping me from civvy street.
1975		D. Nobbs Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976) 280: How are you finding things on civvy street?
1987		(con. 1920s) L. Redmond Emerald Square 87: Many of them came back to ‘civvy’ street, like some shell shocked veterans of the Western Front.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 133: Ah cannae fuckin stick civvy street.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers xvii: [He] hit Civvie Street with the equivalent of a small fortune in his personal kick.
2000		Indep. Rev. 3 Mar. 6: All these heroes survived the peace and were successfully demobbed into civvy street.
2009		Observer Mag. 1 Feb. 39/3: The most fundemental problem was despair with life, due to an inability to cope with civvy street.