Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Aus.) one for whom success comes easily [from the line ‘Head or tail, I’m safe to win’].

1870		Maitland Mercury (NSW) 29 Nov. 3/3: What next! mayhap this wrinkle will suggest the idea of inviting tenders for the various official vacancies as they occur in future. Davy stand for the ‘happy thought,’ go straight at the principle, my chassepot, and like ‘Tommy Dodd’ you are bound to win.
1871		Australasian (Melbourne) 29 July 17/2: The cause progresses, and, like Tommy Dodd, is ‘sure to win’.
1900		Sydney Morn. Herald 27 Oct. 5/5: One reason is the inevitableness of the issue. Like that ones popular personage, Tommy Dod [sic], the Government are ‘sure to win’.

2. in attrib. use of sense 1, that which requires no effort.

1946

Sydney Morn. Herald 5 Jan. 9/5: ‘To-day’s batsmen are not of their standard. Everything is ‘made’ for them, nothing or little is made for the bowler [...] ‘One thing is certain - the game must become dull if this molly-coddling of batsmen continues.’ [...] He could probably still give an account of himself in what he terms ‘Tommy Dodd’ cricket.

3. (Aus.) a genteel rogue.

1870		Dalby Herald (Qld) 3 Dec. 3/1: It is to be hoped nevertheless that the enliving [sic] spectacle of an inebriated ‘Tommy Dodd’ may yet be visible, and rejoiced at in our streets, to the salvation from destruction of the two classes of P’s [i.e. police and publicans] alluded to.
1873		Wkly Times (Melbourne) 2 Aug. 9/5: The Tommy Dodds of new chums, that come out by nearly every ship, to call theirselves ‘a number of gentlemen interested in Great Britain,’ and to make believe to represent the British nation in Australia.
1937		Sun. Times (Perth) 30 May 13/2: We’ve heard some sheiks of sixty-odd, and very much the odd. / Tell a lassie she had lovely handi-pandies, / A cheap excuse, my readers dear, of many a Tommy Dodd / To coax her out to Canning Bridge - and brandies.

4. (usu. Aus., also tommy dod) used of a variety of clothing, e.g. coats, trousers, hats.

1870		Sth Bourke Standard (Vic.) 28 Jan. 3/3: Found, pair of trousers with a Duke’s stripe on, a hat (Tommy Dodd hat of course) double breasted waistcoat, a Crimean shirt and, a Dickey.
1870		Northern Echo 3 June 3/3: So if a man is such an ass as to believe that that every individual in a ‘Tommy Dodd’ hat, who accosts him in the streets of a great city, has just had money left him [etc].
1870		Hamilton Spectator (Vic.) 21 Sept. 3/2: The gentleman, in a ‘Tommy Dodd’ chintz jacket, snow shirt bosom, satin unmentionables, and shoes with large rosettes.
1870		Argus (Melbourne) 17 Nov. 5/5: The woman had been found by the police wandering about the streets of Newtown, dressed in a ‘Tommy Dodd’ coat, trousers, and vest, with a boy’s cap on her head.
1872		Ovens and Murray Advertiser (Beechworth, Vic) 18 Jan. 3/4: The various tradesmen in Beechworth [...] would sooner have us as customers and are mere regularly paid by us than by your bell-toppered, solar-hatted, ‘Tommy Dodd’-coated ‘lords of creation’ - save the mark.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 4 Jul. 9/1: ‘Press,’ we bawled as we cobwebbed towards the door and had our entrance barred by a proud official, the gorgeousness of whose uniform was a little relieved by a ‘Tommy Dodd’ hat.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 188: The hat-brim was dashed down recklessly [...] But here the landlord interposed. ‘Better make it a tommy-dod,’ he urged pacifically.
1925		Maryborough Chron. (Qld) 25 Mar. 4/1: His range of togs is largely concentrated in the white uniform of the ship’s steward, his winter suit with the old time ‘Tommy Dodd’ coat of the seventies, later on to be supplemented with the grey belly warmer as the winter approaches.
1937		Illawarra Mercury (Wollongong, NSW) 17 Dec. 11/4: Wellington and Half Wellington boots with well-wrinkled ankle-sides and squares toes, bell-bottomed trousers, ‘Tommy Dodd’ coats, white shirts with pleated fronts, and wide-awake hats completed the outfit.

5. (Aus./N.Z.) a small measure of beer, approx. one quarter-pint; also the glass in which the beer is served.

1874		Queenslander (Brisbane) 28 Nov. 7/1: We go into my favorite house, and I say to the barmaid, ‘My love, give us two ‘Tommy Dodds,’ and she gives ’em.
1903		Aus. Star (Sydney) 9 Apr. 6/5: On a document handed in his Honor found the name of Mr. Dodd, and then appeared to be convinced that Tommy Dodd was, in truth, a real personage, and not a myth or a diminutive drink.
1904		Freeman’s Jrnl (Sydney) 16 July 17/4: The barmaid placed a tiny glass of English before him - what is known colloquially as a ‘Tommy Dodd.’ .
1906		World’s News (Sydney) 10 Nov. 14/3: She was not able to give the exact measurement, but explained generally that it was equal to about two ‘Tommy Dodds,’ of which a careful person who manipulates the ‘head’ skilfully is expected to get three out of a small bottle.
1918		Albury Banner (NSW) 26 Apr. 38/1: About two ‘Tommy Dodd’ shandies were enough for me on such days, in those times anyhow.
1924		Eve. News (Sydney) 23 Feb. 4/4: BOYS (standing six deep round the bar) respond in a medley. Three bottles of K.B., please, and four bottles of Dirty Annie. Six mugs of bitter ale straight. Four glasses, one with snakejuice and one Tommy Dodd.
1926		Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate (ACT) 11 Feb. 3/2: The glass found in defendant’s possession is called a ‘Tommy Dodd,’ and is the kind used at hotels.
1931		Wright & Eplett [perf. Gus Elen] ‘’E don’t know who 'e are’ 🎵 Won't join in a quiet Tommy Dodd / Drinking Scotch and Sodas on 'is own.
1941		Baker N.Z. Sl.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.

6. (Aus.) a coin which has been defaced on one side.

1870		Queenslander (Brisbane) 15 Oct. 2/4: It is about those ‘Tommy Dodd’ shillings that I wish to speak.
1870		Maitland Mercury (NSW) 1 Sept. 3/6: [W]hilst riding upon a Pitt street bus, an altercation ensued between a fellow passenger and the conductor of the bus upon the subject of a ‘Tommy Dodd’ shilling.
1870		Gympie Times (Qld) 15 Oct. 3/3: By the way, when I returned to Sydney I found the same dread of headless sixpence’s, shillings, and half crowns; in that that they are styled ‘Tommy Dodds,’ and indeed that term seems now to be applied there to any man or thing which is not of a sterling character.
1870		Bell’s Life in Sydney 24 Sept. 3/2: On Mr Turner supplying the required restoratives, a ‘Tommy Dodd’ sixpence was tendered in payment; but Mr T. having been accustomed to a well known Dark House in London, was too enlightened to be caught by a ‘Tommy’ and, so, politely declined the honor of his acquaintance.
1870		Eve. News (Sydney) 3 Dec. 4/2: What must be thought of the pious impostors who had been, for the last forty years ‘chiselling’ a church, by passing off upon the unfortunate clerk so many ‘brummagems’ and ‘Tommy Dodds’ that he had at last collected a regular treasury of them?
1871		Newcastle Chron. (NSW) 15 Apr. 4/1: I asked him [...] how he was off for cash [...] he replied he didn’t know; to the second, that he had just one sixpence - a Tommy Dodd - left, out of which he meant to pay his next letter to you.
1871		Darling Downs Gaz. (Toowoomba, Qld) 22 Feb. 3/1: Griper observes that [...] an old collector of ‘Tommy Dodds’ was found mourning for the state of the city about 9 o’clock on the morning of the election.
1873		Queenslander (Brisbane) 22 Feb. 3/7: I hope when Harden’s suggestion it carried out, and they all go round with the hat, the Rockhamptonites will ‘stump up’ liberally. I have a ‘Tommy Dodd’ still in reserve.

7. (Aus.) used attrib. of sense 6, of individuals, false, fake .

1870

Bell’s Life in Sydney 12 Nov. 3/3: Mr J. B. Suttor also presented the humble position of Dick, Tom, and Harry, setting forth, that they are the veritable and original gold discoverers - all others being regular ‘Tommy Dodds’.

8. (Aus.) a token issued by a company to be used as money.

1903		Aus. Town and Country Jrnl (Sydney) 25 Nov. 9/3: Workmen on Friday last came across a number of copper tokens, known in olden time as ‘Tommy Dodds.’ They vary in date from 1855 to 1863, and bear the superscription either of Metcalfe and Lloyd, wine merchants, Sydney, or Sargood, Sydney, their face value being one penny.
1916		Queensland Times (Brisbane) 6 May 9/1: Mr. E. McLean [...] unearthed a relic of olden days in the shape of a ‘Tommy Dodd,’ bearing on the face the Australian coat of arms, and the inscription ‘Queensland, 1865.’ The reverse side was inscribed ‘John Pettigrew and Co., Wholesale and Retail General Merchants, Ipswich.’ .
1935		Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 28 Oct. 11/1: The coin is what is known as a ‘Tommy Dodd,’ and is of no special value. These were issued many years ago by trading firms for their own convenience.

9. a walking stick.

1917

Boy’s Own Paper XL:1 25: I can see again my dear old dad going to the corner cupboard and bringing therefrom a ‘tommy-dodd’ walking stick, crook and all.