Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a shirt.

1898		Binstead & Wells A Pink ’Un and a Pelican 9: ’Er, ’Arry, what size dickey-dirts do you take?
1900		Harrington & LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] The Girl in the Khaki Dress 🎵 Khaki cuffs and collars, yes, and khaki ‘dicky dirts’.
1905		Duke Tritton’s Letter n.p.: So I threw off my Barrel Of Fat, Dicky Dirt, Rammy Rousers and Daisy Roots, and dived into the Mother and Daughter.
1910		F. Murray [perf. Harry Champion] ‘Don’t do it again Matilda’ 🎵 The dickey’s as rough as a rusty nail / [...] / My shirt, oh doesn’t it hurt.
1911		E. Dyson ‘Nicholas Don and the Meek Almira’ in Benno and Some of the Push 23: Then the first voice again, pleadingly: ‘Nickie, where did you get them round-the-’ouses?’ [...] ‘’N’ that little dickie-dirt?’.
1916		Yorks Eve. Post 16 Oct. 5/4: His shirt [...] is always spoken of as his ‘dickey dirt’ and his trousers as ‘round the houses’.
1924		Mail (Adelaide) 16 Feb. 1/4: A few of the ways that clothes are referred to:— Shirt— Dicky dirt.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 76: Dicky Dirt: Shirt.
1932		‘P.P.’ Rhy. Sl.
a.1945		L. Payne private coll. n.p.: Shirt Dicky Dirt.
1953		J. Franklyn Cockney 294: [He] lost so heavily that he had to put his Dicky Dirt (shirt) in bullock’s horn (pawn).
1963		L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 105: His ‘dicky dirt’ is his shirt, and his ‘choker’ is the shoe-lace around his neck doing duty for a tie.
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxiv 4/3: DECKY [sic] DIRT: Shirt.
1979		R. Barker Fletcher’s Book of Rhy. Sl. 25: His Dicky Dirt was torn.
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 11: They were dressed in the uniform of the day. Gucci terrace of houses and dicky dirts from the op-shops for the blokes and jeans and slogan carrying T-shirts for the Charlie Wheelers.
1992		R. Puxley Cockney Rabbit.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 172: Thank fuck it never went on your dicky, eh? Paul Smiff, innit?
2001		G. Coughlan Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 bucket of dirt: shirt.

2. (also dick) a woman, a girl.

1927

(con. WW1) P. MacDonald Patrol 41: ‘Topper [...] what’s the dick like out in Wopland?’ [...] ‘What about the skirt?’.