Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. of people or animals, sickly, unhealthy; also in fig. use.

1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: It’s all Dicky with him; i.e. it’s all over with him.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 21: Every one said / ’Twas all Dicky with GEORGY, his mug hung so dead.
1823		Devizes & Wilts Gaz. 25 Dec. 4/1: Taylor running on knock’d him down [...] and after that, oh, ’twas all dickey with ’em.
1824		Annals of Sporting 1 Feb. 132: George Cooper [...] loooking very pale, and altogether extremely dickey.
1838		‘Alfred Crowquill’ Seymour’s Humourous Sketches (1866) 17: ‘I was once in a cage myself,’ said his chum. ‘And what did they take you for?’ ‘Take me for? — for a lark.’ ‘Pretty Dickey!’ ‘Yes, I assure you, it was all dickey with me’.
1850		Bell’s Life in Sydney 9 Mar. 3/1: When Richard emigrated to Sydney from Cockatoo, and he was in a particularly dickey state, she received him into her house.
1850		Old Glasgow Street Songs n.p.: My head it was thick, and my legs they was thin, / ‘Cos mother was dickey at our lying in!
1870		E. Greey Queen’s Sailors I 287: She says her missis av bin werry dicky and likely to croak.
1886		Sporting Times 27 Feb. 4/5: Don Juan is as dicky in the market as he is said to be in his legs.
1889		World (N.Y.) 23 June 7/3: The Phillies are somewhat dickey in the legs at present, while the New Yorks are in the pink of condition.
1890		R.D. Blackmore Kit and Kitty II 11: I looked ‘uncommon dickey’.
1894		J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) I 170: I have got a rare dicky knee [...] I strained it jumping a gate.
1896		H. Blossom Checkers 22: Domino’s got a ‘dickey’ leg, and he won’t be anything but last.
1897		Truth (Sydney) 10 Jan. 5/3: What is the matter with the young grey mare? / She’s looking rather dicky.
1901		‘Miles Franklin’ My Brilliant Career 72: The combined forces of the burn and influenza made me a trifle dicky.
1909		Magnet 10 July 16: Morgan here, feels a bit dickey.
1918		‘Sapper’ Human Touch 247: Have a nip of this, Palmer [...] You’re looking damned dicky.
1920		Marvel 29 May 3: I was going to say that my boy’s not very well tonight. He’s been very dicky this last two or three days.
1943		J. Phelan Letters from the Big House 160: Feeling a bit dicky, eh!
1950		C. Harris Three-Ha’Pence to the Angel 67: She ain’t too good [...] she looks very dicky. She’s very dicky.
1963		H.E. Bates Oh! To be in England (1985) 424: Was Mr Candy feeling dicky?
1966		J. Holledge Great Aust. Gamble 40: When later the horse proved unsound he was quite undeterred and persevered with treatment to strengthen its ‘dicky’ legs.
1972		K. Bonfiglioli Don’t Point That Thing at Me (1991) 39: Hockbottle, to everyone’s dismay, drops dead. Dicky ticker.
1986		C. Bowles G’DAY 92: Most of them are over 65 [...] They often have dicky tickers.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 197: Feeling a bit dicky [...] Thought I’d take half a day off.
1994		G. Disher Crosskill [ebook] ‘Hope you haven’t got a dicky heart’.
2001		K. Waterhouse Soho 41: Dicky heart, I’d say.
2006		Guardian G2 28 Mar. 5: Headlines about his dicky ticker.
2012		P. Corris ‘Prodigal Son’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] Turns out I’ve got a dicky heart [...] Just made it through the first operation.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 55: [I]t smelled somewhat like a dicky pilchard.

2. (also dick in the green) of things, and people, second-rate, of poor quality, weak, sub-standard, not working as they should; occas. used as adv., see cite 1829.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 235: dicky, or dick in the green: very bad or paltry; any thing of an inferior quality, is said to be a dicky concern.
1820		Jack Randall’s Diary 66: For soon all dicky ’twas with Western Dick.
1829		Reading Mercury 6 Apr. 4/5: A pair of stout Kersey Trotter Cases, carved to fit any pins, however dickey formed.
1833		‘True Principles of Milling’ in Corinthian in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 57: First to frighten your man by your chaffingne’er try, / Tho’ a few greens may laugh, still it is all my eye, / It’s dickey, it’s nonsense, it’s gammon and bother.
1840		R. Barham ‘The Brothers of Birchington’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1847) 262: ’Tis all dickey with poor Father Dick – he’s no more.
1849		Sam Sly 21 Apr. 2/3: The barman, at the Spa, to settle his account with his laundress, or very shortly it will be all dickey with you.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 30: DICKEY, bad, sorry, or foolish; food or lodging is pronounced dickey when of a poor description.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 374/1: Sometimes it’s good silk, but it’s mostly very dicky.
1866		J. Greenwood Night in a Workhouse 28: The columbine was less fortunate in his opinion. ‘She’s werry dickey! – ain’t got what I call “move” about her.’.
1885		‘’Arry [...] at the Grosvenor Gallery’ in Punch 10 Jan. 24/1: The rest of the Show’s Dicky Doyle, but, by Jingo! it isn’t ‘all Dicky.’.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Jan. 14/3: [T]here is a mill on the Clarence River in which the boilers and engines are so ‘dickey’ that local whites will not work there for love or beer or money.
c.1900		E.E. Rogers [perf. Arthur Tinsley] ‘As You Were Before’ 🎵 When the boys shout what a dicky masher with a roar.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 108/2: Dicky, Dickey (Peoples’). Very doubtful ; e.g., ‘It’s Dickey, ain’t it?’.
1916		J. Buchan Greenmantle (1930) 351: The Studebaker was a rotten old car. Its steering-gear was pretty dicky, and the bad surface and continual hairpin bends of the road didn’t improve it.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 94: Wonder if that dodge works now getting dicky meat off the train at Clonsilla.
1929		C. McKay Banjo 148: They’re dickey bums, just panhandling through life like us.
1934		D.L. Sayers Nine Tailors (1984) 133: He tells me that a complete set of new ropes was put in last December. One or two were a little dicky.
1991		D. Widgery Some Lives! 27: It’s a bit dicky, like. [...] Maybe I will go in. As long as you don’t make me a geriatric case, Doc.

3. (UK Und.) suspicious, odd.

1895

J. Caminada Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life I 428: If he lives in Carter Street, Greenheys, and says that he has come from San Francisco, there is something ‘dickey’ about him. [Ibid.] II 139: This looks a bit dickey; there’s something wrong here.

4. (Aus./N.Z.) stupid.

1914		Sport (Adelaide) 27 Feb. 6/3: Ralph C. was a boy called Micky, / His fingers were always sticky. / With his paws in the jam, / And his jaws in the ham. / He looked so very dicky.
1977		(con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 232: ‘You got yourself a dicky-suit,’ Gunner goaded.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 36/1: dickey stupid; eg ‘Well, I don’t think Billy T’s dickey at all, I think he’s neat.’.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

5. of plans, risky, ill-advised, overly complex; note mis-defined as a n. in cit. 1967.

1959		(con. 1940s) ‘David Forrest’ Last Blue Sea 90: It’s a bit dicky sending a section down there, but if you sent a platoon this early, you’d be in trouble here if the Nips attacked the company.
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxiv 4/3: dicky: A shaky proposition.
2000		Indep. Rev. 10 Mar. 11: A boy has to make sure that his mum and dad meet so he can be born. It’s a bit dicky.