biddy, n.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

biddy n.¹

[dial.]

1. a chicken.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 10: Biddy — a duck, or other fowl, trussed up.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1874		L.M. Alcott Little Wives Ch. viii: [The English hens] had a contented cluck, as if they never got nervous, like Yankee biddies.
1907		J.W. Carr ‘Word-List from Hampstead, N.H.’ in DN III iii 181: biddy, n. In children’s language, a hen. [...] 185: crow-biddy, n. Children’s language. A rooster.
1917		Pullman Herald (WA) 9 Nov. 1/5: ‘Red Cross,’ a patriotic biddy [...] did nobly in her efforts to assist [...] our fighting men.
1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 45: De rooster chew t’ backer, de hen dip snuff. / De biddy can’t do it, but he struts his stuff.
1960		J. Boswell Ernie and the Rest of Us 119: The eggs are cold, so the biddies are still laying.

2. (US) an egg.

1916		Day Book (Chicago) 8 Sept. 17/1: ‘Where’s my eggs on toast,’ complained a man. [...] ‘Rush the biddies on a raft!’ cries the waiter.
1922		[as cite 1916].
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS 33/1: biddies on a raft Eggs on toast.

he-biddy (n.)

(US) a (fighting) cock.

1824		N.-Y. National Advocate 29 Dec. 2/2–3: Cock fighting, Police, &c. – At an early hour, on a cold morning last week [...] the Watchmen up Broadway [...] seized two tall lank country men, dressed in linsey-woolsey trowsers; they had each in hand a large sack containing cocks, or he-biddies. [Ibid.] 2/4: All the cock-fighters in town got at me for meddling with their amusements, they bristled up their feathers; got on their gaffs, and made a tremendous effort to crow me off the field, if I did not leave them and their He-biddies alone.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 253: If I could grab one of those ‘biddies,’ I’d have him boiled.

neat as a biddy (adj.)

very neat or well turned-out.

1823

‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 10: A public-house servant, tidy-vated off, is ‘as neat’s a biddy’ so is a good stroke at bagatelle.