Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also Ned) a donkey.

1621		Rowley, Dekker & Ford Witch of Edmonton II i: The ass was called Tom, as well as Jack and Neddy.
1788		‘The Pleasures of Brighton’ Banquet of Thalia 3: Hollo! ma’am, keep your neddy out of the way of my tits.
1794		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘A Rowland for an Oliver’ Works (1794) II 412: But, Peter, thou art mounted on a Neddy: Or, in the London phrase – thou Dev’nshire Monkey, Thy Pegasus is nothing but a Donkey.
1801		J. Churchill ‘18th of August’ in Poems II 124: When honest neddy comes reeling about / [...] / Or stops and distorts his sweet muscles, to bray.
1818		‘Thomas Brown’ Fudge Family in Paris letter I 2: And, though one little Neddy we saw in our drive / out of classical Nampont, the beast was alive!
1821		‘A Real Paddy’ Real Life in Ireland 91: All the pleasurable ladies from the Liberty, rode criss cross upon their neddies.
1831		Mr Mathews’ Comic Annual 25: I’ll lay ye a farden, that the brick-dust neddy vins.
1831		Satirist (London) 24 Apr. 18/3: Mr. Alley: Didn’t you call it a ‘Bob’—and didn't he correct you and call it a ‘Ned’? Witness: No; he never said it was a Ned.
1851		Lytton My Novel (1884–5) I IV 257: Give the neddy a shove out i’ the vay.
1867		R. Whiteing Mr Sprouts, His Opinions 1: ‘Good-bye; gee hup, Neddy,’ he says to the donkey.
1877		J. Diprose London Life 42: His favourite beverage is a ‘pot o’ four arf,’ or ‘drop o’ cooper,’ between him and his Neddy, which the donkey is seldom ‘ass’ enough to refuse.
1908		Queenslander (Brisbane) 23 May 47/1: Pat, turning to a companion, said, ‘By gosh, Neddy’s footing it now’.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Nov. 14/2: This stable was meant to house a donkey, and one was duly engaged. [...] But the faithful Neddy wouldn’t think of it.
1933		Argus (Melbourne) 20 July 22/4: Neddy and Me [...] I’m going to the fair with my little grey Ned.
1936		(con. 1830s–60s) ‘Miles Franklin’ All That Swagger 339: When she was ready she clambered on to an old neddy and the baby was handed up.
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 308: ‘Ker-ist!’ Thirty-Bob sneered. ‘Hold out a carrot to a neddy! What the Hell’s the use of rushing and sweating to get work?’.

2. a fool, a simpleton.

1818		W. Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian (1883) 308: Who cares, ye donnard Neddie! I care.
1854		Thackeray Newcomes I 4: All types of characters march through all fables; tremblers and boasters; victims and bullies; dupes and knaves; long-eared Neddies, giving themselves leonine airs.
1893		K. Mackay Out Back 188: Blast yer, weren’t yer rowing too, you neddy?
1896		G.F. Northall Warwickshire Word-Book 156: Neddy. A simpleton.

3. (also neddie) a horse, esp. a racehorse; thus attrib.

1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 3 Aug. 6/2: A man came into camp riding on an old nag. ‘How much for the neddy?’ asked a by-stander.
1893		K. Mackay Out Back 189: All the neddies are out of sight.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 14 Aug. 1/5: He will make him back the neddie / He will make him lose his tin.
1902		F. Kenna ‘Confidential Jockey’ in Bulletin Reciter 1880–1901 180: He’d walk around de neddy [...] And he’d feel about de shoulder, / And de fetlock and de knee.
1915		F. Garrett diary 27 July 🌐 Niggers do all the mucking and the neddies [i.e. horses] are under roofs.
1919		E. Dyson ‘Marshal Neigh, V.C.’ in ‘Hello, Soldier!’ 🌐 ’N’ presently that neddy sobers up, ’n’ sez ‘Ive course, / Since you puts it that way, cobber, I will be a better horse’.
1927		C. Drew ‘Grafter and Goose’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Aug. n.p.: ‘The only horse I’m frightened of is the neddy you backed —Mildred’.
1933		Queenslander (Brisbane) 22 June 2/4: Knowing ‘Neddy’ [...] the worn-out horses are taken to Taronga Zoo.
1945		Western Mail (Perth) 6 Dec. 18/1: That old neddy knows as much about it as I do.
1951		Townsville Daily Bull. 9 June 1/6: So Neddy Won the Argument. A man was charged with being drunk in charge of a horse and cart.
1967		J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 10: He’s a sucker for slow neddies and fast squaries.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 31: McGruder [...] also trained the neddy that had just bolted in.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 66: The Flea (who was called that because of the way he kept on hopping from course to course all over the country following the neddy activity).
1999		P. Temple Black Tide (2012) [ebook] Mr and Mrs Grogan own this ancient neddy and Karen Devine’s the trainer.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 141: neddy Racehorse [...] Late C19 ANZ.