Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a woman’s under-petticoat.

1743		J.E. Weekes ‘Left on a Lady’s Toilette’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 298: Why am I not her lace, her ring, / Her dicky or her fan.
1753		Beaus Receipt for a Lady’s Dress in F.W. Fairholt Satirical Songs on Costume (1849) 231: Make your petticoats short [...] decently show how your garters are ty’d; With fringes of knotting your Dickey.
1787		Foote Minor I 99: Of all her splendid apparel not a wreck remained [...] save her flannel dicky .
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
1800		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Death of Crim. Con.’ Works (1801) V 147: The bosom heaving, heaving bare; The hips asham’d, forsooth, to wear a dicky.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1811		O. Neville Lay of the Last Minstrel, Travesty 176: Behind the Giant and the Dame, / Sweet Molly in her dickey (o) came [note] (o) A dickey [is] a short shift, tied to the front of a female, without a tail, coming not quite down to the knee-pan — a recent invention [...] for the convenience of procuring a front and behind view of the fair wearer.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 66: Dickey — when made of flannel, ’tis an undermost garment, feminine.
1832		Satirist (London) 1 July 210/3: [A] rare display of shawls, hats, gloves, tippets, boots, upper and under dickeys, list garters.
1843		Gleaner (Manchester, NH) 16 Sept. n.p.: Marm ‘buttoned her dickey up’ and issued forth.
1850		Halliwell Dict. of Archaic and Provincial Words (2nd edn) I 302/2: Dicky, a woman’s under-petticoat.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 May 9/4: The following articles of dress:— man’s hat, lady’s polonaise, and frilled dickey.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1968		(con. late 19C) S. Longstreet Wilder Shore 189: But oh, the cruel, faithless queen, / She left her King and spread her dicky.

2. a worn-out shirt.

1781		G. Parker View of Society I 82: Two pairs of stockings, one Dickey, and nine-pence in money. Thus equipped, I went on my journey.
1832		Satirist (London) 1 July 210/3: [A] rare display of shawls, hats, gloves, tippets, boots, upper and under dickeys, list garters.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.

3. a detachable shirt-front.

1807		Irving & Paulding Salmagundi (1860) 411: Tricking me out with claret coats, tight breeches, and silver-sprigged dickeys.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 66: Dickey — half a quarter of a shirt, covering the breast only (all frill).
1827		J. Wight More Mornings in Bow St. 140: Those economic substitutes for clean linen [...] yclep’d dickies and false collars.
1830		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) 26 June 2/2: A dubb’d knight in whiskers and dickey at her side.
1838		R.S. Surtees Jorrocks Jaunts (1874) 127: I’ve a dickey and a clean front for to-morrow.
1838		T. Haliburton Clockmaker II 127: She made frill, shirt collar, and dickey fly like snow.
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 444: From his drab felt wide-awake he drew out half a quire of clean dickeys.
1845		W.T. Porter Big Bear of Arkansas (1847) 91: I had on my new wastecoat and a dicky bussam with ruffles on each side.
1853		R.S. Surtees Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 385: Mr. Sponge, being more of a two-shirts-and-a-dicky sort of man.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 251/1: He [...] put his hand in his breast to keep down his dickey.
c.1867		‘New Intended Reform Bill’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 86: Such fops shall be compelled to [...] wear an unstarched dicky for six months.
1872		Public Opinion 24 Feb. 241: A florid-looking girl who was taking a deep professional interest in ironing a dickey [F&H].
1876		C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 290: All is now opened to view, even when the shirt is all ‘dicky’.
1883		J. Greenwood Tag, Rag & Co. 243: I shall have ’em all on to-morrow – tidy sort of weskit, cuffs, collar, and dicky – all up to the knocker.
1887		W.S. Gilbert ‘Haunted’ Fifty ‘Bab’ Ballads 314: With a turnip head and a ghostly wail, / And a splash of blood on the dickey!
1888		A. Trumble Mott Street Poker Club 29: The ferret-eyed young man produced a very dirty dickey, two ditto collars and a pair of cuffs.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 13 May. 1/7: Her dicky, collar, and cravat, / Exactly match her brother’s.
1898		Binstead & Wells Pink ’Un and Pelican 280: His broad chest rising and falling beneath the soiled linen dickey.
1900		Ade More Fables in Sl. (1960) 138: When she discovered His lordship he was down to his last Dickey.
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 9 Aug. 14/4: [B]efore the dinner ended, every bit of starched ‘dicky’ was closely covered with hieroglyphic characters and sketches. One shirt front, a perfect gallery of autographs, is to be framed and preserved.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 149: The Gorilla always wears a swimmin’ jersey with a celluloid dicky.
1914		‘Ian Hay’ Lighter Side of School Life 203: We are going to rag a man’s study for wearing a dickey.
1920		‘Sapper’ Bulldog Drummond 169: Off you go, and raise a complete waiter’s outfit, dicky and all complete.
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 12: Pack our spare dickey and a toothbrush.
1937		L. Lane Me and My Girl I iii: charles: And what is a dickey, sir? bill: Shirt wivaht a chassis.
1946		S. Jackson Indiscreet Guide to Soho 29: The pre-war ‘dickeys,’ which used to cost 2/3 a dozen are now priced at 8 ½d. each.
1958		Willans & Searle Complete Molesworth (1985) 18: Tucking M.C.C. tie over his clean dicky.
1973		G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 165: He was wearing the Roman collar and the dickey.
1984		‘Derek Raymond’ He Died with His Eyes Open 55: ’E wouldn’t even wear a peaked cap and dicky for a wedding.
1999		Guardian Rev. 28 Aug. 4: Ron Dizon in his dicky.
2000		Indep. Rev. 22 Jan. 5: What I’d bought were nothing but false cuffs and dickies padded out with cardboard.
2010		K. Richards Life 43: He’d [...] play [the violin] at night, getting up in a white-fronted shirt, a ‘dickey’.
2018		‘Aidan Truhen’ Price You Pay 80: These are shirt-front identities like those white paper dickeys you see in westerns.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 74: [a] black frock coat with blank tux-dicky and grey lally-covers.

4. a shirt-collar.

1830		Collegian 40: After taking off his coat, stock, and dickie [DA].
1844		‘Jonathan Slick’ High Life in N.Y. I 4: There was a chap [...] with the edge of his dickey turned over his stock—like an old-fashioned baby’s bib.
1850		Manchester Spy (NH) 5 Oct. n.p.: Boarders without high dickies are not expected to eat as much.
1883		J. Greenwood Odd People in Odd Places 38: Besides these articles there was a pair of what had once been white linen cuffs, a ‘dickey’ of the same dubious complexion, and a white tie.
1913		A. Irvine My Lady of the Chimney Corner 74: When Jamie donned a ‘dickey’ once to attend a funeral and came home with it in his pocket, no comment was made.

5. a detachable nameplate, used on a tradesman’s van.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 305/2: from ca. 1890.