billy-o, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

billy-o n.

1. (also billyho, billy-ho, billy-oh) euph. for hell, thus trouble, punishment.

1903		Bulletin (Sydney) 2 July Red Page/4: ‘O Listen to our tale of woe!’ / The statisticians cry in chorus: / ‘The birth-rate’s gone to Billyho!’.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 22 June 4/2: A handicapper was justlfied in belting billy oh out of the waiting wastrels.
1927		Punch 25 May 584/3: He would take a team anywhere... He would take a team to Billy-O .
1973		H. Leonard Da (1981) Act I: I got billy-ho for going with you to that fillum.
1974		D. Ireland Burn 103: Strike me roan, one word and you’re off the track to billy-oh!
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 8: Billy-oh: [...] One’s rheumatism, sciatica or mild case of clap can also be, ‘giving one billy-oh’. One can also give the neighbour’s unpleasant dog billy-oh which translates into the fact that one has beaten the wretched animal half to death with a pick handle.
1997		Bug (Aus.) 1 Oct. 🌐 John Howard-Cunningham grabbed the little Hawke ball without blanching and ran to billy-o with it.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 91: gone to billyo 1. Disappeared, gone to a faraway place, where you boil the billy in the great outdoors. 2. Messed up, plans gone awry, the influence of ‘Old Billy’, the Devil.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Irish Fandango [ebook] ‘I copped billyo for even askin’ about it’.

2. nonsense, rubbish.

1915

J. Buchan Thirty-Nine Steps (1930) 40: His talk of Epirote guards that would skin their own grandmothers was all billy-o.

In phrases

like billy-o (adv.) (also like billyho, …billy-ho, ...billy hell, ...billy-oh, ...(the) billyo) [dial., euph. for ‘bloody hell’]

a general intensifier and expression of energy or effort, most enthusiastically, strenuously, speedily.

1869		Western Times 27 Aug. 8/1: ‘Yes,’ said a bye-stander, a labourer, ’ and I zee’d et too comin’ out like Billy O’.
1870		Western Times 1 Apr. 7/3: He assured the bench that she was — well not sober; and added, ‘She cumm’d out swearing at I like Billyo!’.
1885		Referee 9 Aug. 7/4: It’s just a new hat I’ll be afther buying, and it’s my umbrella I’ll be lavin’ at home and shure it’ll rain like billy-ho!
1897		Truth (London) 10 June 35/2: The nippers [...] began to ’owl and blubber like Billyo’.
1900		Sporting Times 27 Jan. 1/2: It used to make me chuckle like sixteen to find my seven [i.e. wives] all sitting up in the hall and quarrelling like billyoh amongst themselves as to their order of precedence in going for me!
1903		J. Furphy Such is Life 141: Horf goos ’em ’osses loike billy-o.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 87: She’s so full o’ fun. So witty. She made me laugh like billy-oh.
1916		‘Anzac’ On the Anzac Trail 54: [T]he women [...] seem quite content to graft away like billy-oh, while their owners lie in the shade and smoke.
1919		Wodehouse Damsel in Distress (1961) 93: ‘Pigs squeal like billy-o, m’lady!’ he observed [...] ‘Oo! ’Ear ’em a mile orf, you can!’.
1921		D.L. Sayers Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (1977) 77: Works like billy-o to keep the home together and all that.
1929		J.B. Priestley Good Companions 605: There they are, falling in love all over again like billy-oh.
1933		J. Conroy Disinherited 273: This will hurt like billy hell.
1934		D.L. Sayers Nine Tailors (1984) 110: On the day of the funeral it rained like billy-oh!
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 110: She was well wedged into a deep arm-chair, but nevertheless she staggered like billy-o.
1939		‘Flann O’Brien’ At Swim-Two-Birds 80: The whole place was burning like billyo in no time.
1949		Wodehouse Mating Season 249: I quailed, as a matter of fact, like billy-o.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 122: I wanted like billy-o to shake him off, but I didn’t know how.
1964		N.B. Harvey Any Old Dollars, Mister? 107: I got annoyed, because it tickled like billy-o.
1966		C. Wood Fill the Stage With Happy Hours (1967) Act VI: He’s tried like billyho to get us a council grant.
1976		H. Leonard Time Was (1981) Act II: The beggars are running like billy-o. Hurrah!
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 8: Billy-oh: A somewhat archaic word that can either mean that one has had a wonderful time at a party or that one is feeling more than slightly off-colour or sick; thus, ‘I played up like billy-oh last night,’ or, ‘my rheumatism is playing up like billy-oh.’.
1992		K. Lette Llama Parlour 151: I should have got out of the stretch limo and run like the billyo, the minute we got to the mansion.
1998		A. Warner Sopranos 47: ‘Can you feel your baby kick at all?’ [...] ‘The wee thing starts booting away like billy-oh’.
2001		Guardian Rev. 10 Mar. 2: I shall force my way to the front of the upper deck in the hope of catching Sir P swearing away like billyo.
2014		T. Black Artefacts of the Dead [ebook] He was screaming like billy-o.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 137: Dada fancied him like billyo.