Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a civilian; thus termed by members of the forces, the prison service, police etc .

1906		H.S. Gaskell With Methuen in Sth Africa 334: Went to concert afterwards. Very good. Ladies and civvies in evening dress.
1918		A.N. Depew Gunner Depew 43: There were no ‘civvies’ to be seen.
1919		Aussie (France) XII Mar. 6/1: Yer mitent believe me but there’s duzens of civvies here dont no a wurd of English.
1920		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 May 14/2: Seated at the same table was a big, red faced, middle-aged civvv.
1921		Dos Passos Three Soldiers 129: ‘Gee, those are about the first real civies I’ve seen since I came overseas,’ said Judkins. ‘Those goddam country people down at Polignac didn’t look like real civilians’.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 151: Talk about discipline! They don’t try disciplin’ any o’ them fuckin’ civvies , do they?
1930		(con. 1914–18) Brophy & Partridge Songs and Sl. of the British Soldier 111: Civvy.—Civilian.
1932		(con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 263: [A] committee of three civies.
1941		G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 85: For sheer sand in the belly, grit, spine, nerve, and guts, some o’ these soft-looking civvies take some beating.
1945		J. Henderson Gunner Inglorious (1974) 132: The civvies, unable to make head nor tail of these strangers, listened curiously to an unfamiliar language.
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 179: Ain’t no goddam civvy going to tell us what to do.
1960		C. MacInnes Mr Love and Justice 23: Not only the civvies all mistrust you [...] the uniformed men do, too.
1970		‘Metropolitan Police Sl.’ in P. Laurie Scotland Yard (1972) 321: civvie: the amorphous British public that is always getting lost and wanting to know the time.
1972		(con. 1930s–40s) Noël Conway Bloods 95: A civvie might be permitted to limp a bit, but not a soldier.
1978		(con. WWII) T. Sanchez Hollywoodland (1981) 58: Come on inside, civvie.
1984		(con. WW2) T. Jones Heart of Oak [ebook] The further north from London we found ourselves, the better the welcome, the more friendly the civvies, the more loving the girls.
1998		J. Hoskison Inside 105: There are no officers in the workshops — just ‘civvies’ overseeing the operation.
2004		N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 138: Harry got on well with the civvy.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 4: My name will be on the oyster levers of every daffy jittery civvy.

2. (UK prison) a commercially sold, ‘tailor-made’ cigarette.

1998

J. Hoskison Inside 14: Jesus Christ — fuckin’ ‘civvies’, ain’t you got no burn?