Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a fool.

1908		N.Y. Times 29 Mar. 39/5: ‘What is that awful smell, Silly Ass?’ Silly-Ass — ‘All the dead cats are thrown down here’.
1914		Winnipeg Trib. (Manitoba) 3 Oct. 17/2: It is this intellectual subtlety of the actor that makes him the ideal ‘silly-arse’.
1915		Concord Dly Trib. (NC) 20 Oct. 4/3: And as a bally, blitherin’ blighter Lawrence D’Orsay [...] wins by a furlong. He is a silly arse.
1928		Baltimore Sun (MD) 26 Feb. 119/3: ‘One of the boys called me a silly as’.
1938		Ottowa Jrnl (Ontario) 12 Feb. 21/8: Not content with earning good money as a silly ass on stage, I acted the silly arse in private life.
1957		Guardian 6 June n.p.: It is deuced awkward for the silly ass, what?
1970		Corpus Christi Caller-Times (TX) 17 Nov. 8/1: Democratic Senator [...] has called a state legislator ‘a silly ass’.
1981		News Herald (Port Clinton, OH) 14 Apr. 9/4: I say he’s a silly ass.
1995		Times (Nanaimo, BC) 21 Feb. 1/5: He only called Rispin a ‘silly ass’ after the councillor asked hi m to ‘step outside’.
1996		Guardian 8 Oct. 13/4: That sill arse Powell should never have told ’em all to vote Socialist.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 123: Then there are various other applications, such as [...] silly-arse, for someone foolish.

1. a general term of disparagement, the implication is of stupidity.

1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 78: You don’t follow my ‘silly ass’ policy as you call it.
1958		W. Talsman Gaudy Image (1966) 221: You silly-assed freak!
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 212: Owen Williams is there with his silly-ass blonde moustache.
1965		L. Bruce How to Talk Dirty 16: He made it as an apprentice seaman, which was a silly-ass thing to do.
1973		D. Goines Street Players 63: We ain’t got no time to waste...fightin’ with no silly-ass bitches.
1974		Central N.J. Home News (New Brinsqick, NJ) 12 Jan. 18/2: The blacks told the Nazis, ‘You ain’t nowhere . . . You’re definitely sick, you silly-assed punks’.
1983		L.A. Times 4 Oct. 68/1: [John] Cleese established a style [...] ‘as a silly-assed, slightly pompous Englishman’.
1985		(con. 1968) D.A. Dye Citadel (1989) 21: Their silly-assed paranoia.
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 37: Listen, you’ve got that silly-assed job whipped.
1992		J. Mowry Way Past Cool 198: Why for you be askin me all this silly-ass shit?
1999		Sydne Morn. Herald 18 Dec. 45/3: So there we were, with a baby and little silly-assed tours to go on.
2000		G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 106: Silly-ass boy [...] That ain’t even a Hamilton. It’s a gotdamn Hormilton, man.

2. foolish.

1946		(con. 1912) B. Marshall George Brown’s Schooldays 15: That’s a silly ass sort of a name, isn’t it?
1950		C. Harris Three-Ha’Pence to the Angel 49: You ain’t with one of your silly ass boyfriends now.
1967		A. Baraka Tales (1969) 20: You silly-ass mother fuckers.
1999		K. Bonfiglioli Great Mortdecai Moustache Mystery 144: I almost blushed. My silly-arse mask must have slipped a little.
2001		Guardian 24 Nov. Jobs 21/1: The other reason for this style of female boss is [...] related to the glass ceiling calle the ‘silly arse ceiling’.

a fool, a simpleton.

1831		Satirist (London) 21/2: The Duke of Gloucester once paid a visit to St. Luke's mad-house. One of the madmen called himself ‘Silly Billy,’ and was always saying, ‘Silly Billy, silly Billy!’ .
1840		T. Haliburton Clockmaker III 188: A spooney patriot is a well-meanin’, silly Billy.
1857		Chester Chron. 15 Aug. 3/3: He had a slabbering manner and apperance; he went by the name of ‘Silly Billy’.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 134/2: The character of ‘Silly Billy’ is a kind of clown, or rather a clown’s butt.
1878		C. Hindley Life and Times of James Catnach 385: ‘Watercresses,’ with the portrait of a Silly Billy.
1888		Glasgow Eve. Post 11 Dec. 6/2: Bill Atkins, known as ‘Silly Billy,’ enetered a coffee house at Spa Road.
1896		Buffalo Eve. News (NY) 15 Jan. 29/4: The german Emperor [...] who was in full regimentals at the ball. Silly Billy!
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Jul. 16/4: Fox, caught in one of my traps, drags it on to a reserve. Silly Billy catches it (because it can’t run), kills and skins it; gets £1 from Stock Inspector.
1910		Pioneer (Bemidji, MN) 27 Dec. 4/4: In a certain town in the north of England there is a man known by the name of Silly Billy.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 155: Silly billies: mob of young cubs yelling their guts out.
1932		(1830s) Framlingham Wkly News 29 Oct. 3/6: His Majesty ‘Silly Billy’ [...] as William IV of England was nicknamed.
1942		Liverpool Eve. Exp. 31 Aug. 2/4: ‘Silly Billy!’ ge said to himself.
1956		J. Curtis Look Long Upon a Monkey 112: You are a silly billy! Of course we don’t do anything of the kind.
1965		J.P. Carstairs Concrete Kimono 59: ‘Silly-Billy Me!’ I exclaimed. ‘I goofed, didn’t I?’.
1979		Birmingham Dly Post 29 Dec. 13/9: He’s just a Silly Billy [...] Australian fast bowler [...] escaped yesterday with a finger-wagging reprimand.
1983		W. Trevor Fools of Fortune 218: ‘Silly-billy Quinton,’ Teresa Shea used to say.
1996		D. Healy Bend for Home 84: Don’t be a silly-billy now.
1999		Guardian G2 23 June 22: I don’t like bloody chat shows – it’s for sad billies in’t it?
1999		Beano 18 Sept. n.p.: Silly billy!
2002		Indep. Rev. 11 Feb. 1: Do you know how many episodes [...] you’ve missed this season alone, you silly-billy?
2006		Simpson Co. News (Mendenhall, MS) 29 June A10/6: There was a village simpleton, nicknamed ‘Silly Billy’.

see ballocks n. (5)

stupid, foolish.

1940		Mid-Sussex Times 20 Aug. 3/4: It may be something silly-born of a woman’s imagination.
1947		Bucks Herald 15 Aug. 3/4: He said, ‘You silly born — I’m ging to knock your head off’.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 264: That’s years ago, you silly-born bastard.

1. a derog. ref. to a woman, irrespective of her actual character.

c.1880		‘Had I The Wyte She Bade Me’ in Burns Merry Muses of Caledonia (1965) 95: And I wanda do’t again, / A silly cow she ca’d me.
1891		Sporting Times 7 Feb. 3/3: Silly cow! Answer me straightway, woman, what art thou?
1933		Boston Guardian 23 Sept. 12/3: I you have a soft job [...] you’re a silly cow if you spoil it.
1966		Guardian 6 July 9/5: It’s enough to speak Cockney and be facetious. Say [...] ‘Silly cow’ [...] and it brings the house down.
1975		Stage (London) 9 Oct. 15/2: ‘Silly cow,’ he says witheringly.
1985		Age (Melbourne) 19 Nov. 2/3: She blames herself and becomes wretched with guilt. Silly cow.
1999		Guardian 31 May 🌐 And it does tend to be a silly cow, not a silly bastard. So many women spend their whole time apologising and thinking everything is their fault anyway, that a serious apology is rarely required of them.
2000		Age (Melbourne) 30 Oct. 11/4: ‘Oh, it is hilarious. The silly cow!’ he shrieks.
2002		Stage (London) 4 Jan. 35/2: I thought, ‘You silly cow’.
2007		Asheville Citizen Times (NC) 6 June 12/1: OK — [...] the silly cow is in jail.

2. used of a man.

1918

poem q. in R.H. Knyvett ‘Over There’ with the Australians vi: Fritz maybe, and the Turk / Feel that way, too, /The same as me an’ you, / [...] although / The silly cows don’t know, / Because they ain’t been born and bred clean-free.

3. used in a homosexual context.

1984		Observer 23 Sept. 23/2: Noel Coward had to admonish him on a croquet lawn, ‘You are a very silly cow!’.
2005		E. White My Lives 299: I was always mooning around [...] looking at Keith reproachfully, and he’d say, ‘Stop staring at me, you silly cow!’.

a psychiatric institution.

1904		Wkly Chieftain (Vinita, OK) 11 Aug. 2/1: [headline] Request for Mr Darrough to Move Crazy Man to Silly House. ‘Get thee to the Silly House, Instanter’.
1910		Brooklyn Dly Eagle (NY) 18 Aug. 10/5: If old Sol [...] threatens to scatter the gray matter in our brains, and land us in a silly house, what can we do?
1921		Munsey’s 73 36: Don’t let any strange doctors get close to Mr. Duncan, or there’ll be an old roommate of yours in the silly-house playing tiddledywinks with Alexander the Great and the Queen of Sheba.
1934		J. Bridie Marriage is No Joke 1: ‘Look you here, Kirkdyke,’ I says, ‘send for Dr. Auchencloss and have me sent to the silly-house’.
1969		K. Giles Death Cracks a Bottle 116: They used to allow me my News of the World in the silly house [OED].
a.1994		NY Times Theatre Reviews 1993-94 38: That habit eventually gels him sent to the ‘silly house,’ or local mental institution.
2001		J. Ware Psychology of Money (2001) [ebook] They’d bundle him up in a straitjacket faster than youcan say, ‘I believe in aliens’ and take him away to the silly house.
2004		T. Dorsey Cadillac Beach 188: But the stress was too much [...] Now he’s a drool-farmer in the silly house.

a stupid woman.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 224/1: Silly moo! (Provincial, Rural). Evasion of silly cow. Said generally of a stupid woman.

of a woman, foolish, flighty.

1895

‘’Arry and the New Woman’ in Punch 18 May 230/3: On styge or on cinder-path, sillypop things / As want to play man and be Woman are trying to fly without wings.

(drugs) psilocybin/psilocin.

1967		Maurer & Vogel Narcotics and Narcotic Addiction (3rd edn).
1977		S.N. Pradhan Drug Abuse.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 19: Silly putty — Psilocybin/psilocin.

(Aus.) the Christmas holidays.

[1873		Sl. Dict. 290: Silly season the period when nobody is supposed to be in London, when there are no parliamentary debates to publish, and when editors are at their wits-end to fill their papers with readable matter. All kinds of crazes on political and social subjects are then ventilated, gigantic gooseberries, monstrous births, and strange showers then become plentiful, columns are devoted to matters which would not at any other time receive consideration, and, so far as the newspapers are concerned, silliness is at a premium].
1881		Torquay Times 1 Jan. 3/1: To the Editor [...] offering you the compliments of the (silly) season, trusting that ‘Christmas festivities’ are not disagreeing with you.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Dec. 14: [caption to page of Christmas-related material] The Silly Season.
2000		Guardian Guide 1–6 Jan. 19: The post-silly season blues.

(Aus. drugs) cannabis.

1998

P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 94: Now give me that silly-weed. And how about some go-faster pills?’.

a fool, a simpleton.

c.1660

‘A Creature ffor ffeature’ in Furnivall & Hales Bishop Percy’s Folio Manuscript of Loose and Humorous Songs (1868) 53: He kist me, & wisht me to beare with his behauior; / but hie tro lolly lolly, le silly willy cold not doe. / all content with him was spent.

a ‘babyish’ term for foolish.

1998

(con. 1960s) G. Washington Blood Brothers 5: ‘Don’t be silly-willy. You want me to lose my job?’ she snapped.

(Aus.) to amaze, to astound.

1871		Sportsman (London) ‘Notes on News’ 26 Aug. 4/2: That Mr Watney [...] should have been returned [...] at all was sufficient to unnerve our contemporary, but that he should get with a majority of one thousand one hundred and nineteen votes appears to have knocked him ‘silly’.
1907		E. Dyson ‘Two Battlers and a Bear’ in Lone Hand (Sydney) Dec. 150/1: I’ll [...] give him a clean shave, and dub him Professor What-d’-yeh-call-him, and he’ll knock these people silly.

see separate entry.

(Aus.) an ironic excl. on encountering pain or bad luck.

1919		W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 45: silly-grin — An ironical ejaculation importing pain or misfortune.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: silly-grin. An ironical ejaculation importing pain or misfortune.