Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also game, gamy) lame, crippled; usu. as gammy leg, a lame leg.

1853		Bell’s Life in Sydney 23 Apr. 2/7: He stretched forward his gammy foot.
1886		Sporting Times 30 Jan. 6/1: ‘Oh, ’ow mad I was when he put out his gammy old leg at me’.
1888		S.O. Addy Sheffield Gloss. 84: Gam, Leg, a lame leg. It is sometimes called a gammy leg.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 16 Nov. 7/4: Enseign was winning tbe Cup last year hands down with his gammy foot.
1894		Truth (Sydney) Feb. 1/7: ‘Gammy’-handed Kaiser Wilhelm made a howling fuss over old Bismarck.
1914		Western Dly Press 3 Dec. 3/4: I am in fairly good health, only trouble being my gammy one. The wound of one side of the leg is very painful [etc.].
1931		Chelmsford Chron. 24 Apr. 12/2: He said his leg was ‘gammy’ and he caught his foot and fell.
1938		G. Greene Brighton Rock (1943) 238: One leg was gammy.
1948		R. Park Harp in South 67: ‘I’m sick of having a gammy foot’.
1948		P. Kavanagh Tarry Flynn (1965) 232: He could tell by the bones in the back of Eusebius’ neck which moved like the hips of a gamy woman that his neighbour was a happy man.
1951		A. Garve Murder in Moscow (1994) 12: He’s a pleasant chap, rather quiet – got a gammy leg.
1957		D. Niland Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 170: He was a goosey-necked grasshopper of a man with a gammy leg.
1966		P. White Solid Mandala (1976) 77: George Brown lashing out with his gammy leg.
1973		(con. mid-1960s) J. Patrick Glasgow Gang Observed 95: The rest of the gang agreed with Tim’s assessment of this epileptic boy with the ‘gammy’ hand.
1982		J. Davis Kullark 35: How would ol’ Skinner carry a coupla dozen flagons with his gammy arm?
1997		(con. 1957) D. Farson Never a Normal Man 284: Tobacco and gammy leg may have restricted his activities.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 261: Marriott has a gammy leg and lurches up tae us, fawin intae the vacant seat.
2019		A. Killilea Boyo-wulf at https://boyowulf.home.blog 7 July 🌐 My internet is a bit gammy.

2. (also game) of any other part of the body, damaged in some way.

1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 133/2: ’im wi’ t’ ‘gammy’ neck an’ t’ stiff collar.
1872		‘Mark Twain’ Innocents at Home 385: Your game eye [i.e. a glass eye] has fetched loose, Miss Wagner dear.
1890		Sporting Times 22 Mar. 1/5: This old bloke with the gammy ear.
1913		Grantham Jrnl 26 Apr. 7/1: I’ve got a gammy thoomb, sergint.
1936		Western Dly Press 12 May 5/4: I’ve got a ‘gammy’ arm.
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 93: Cunt could’ve had two gammy eyes for all’s we cared.
2005		B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 250: He was very conscious of his ‘gammy’ teeth as he thought they made him look ugly.

3. idle, lazy.

1880

D.W. Barrett Life and Work among Navvies 43: Inspectors are not always welcome visitors to a man when he feels a bit gammy (idle).

4. in fig. use, spoilt, useless, second-rate.

1904		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 15 June 3/5: They get a ’apenny lucky bag or a gammy orange.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 185: Gammy (a) Unreliable, counterfeit, likely ‘to let you down’.
1988		R. Doyle Commitments 86: So all I have to do is push these lads up or down a bit when the sound’s a bit gammy?
1998		K. Sampson Awaydays 52: So I’m lying here, a gammy mug of hour-old tea congealing by my bedside.
2001		G. Coughlan Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Gammy (a): shitty, a load of crap, useless.
2021		L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 15: She wasn’t in the business of falling in love with twenty-year-old boys but it helped that there was nothing gammy about him.

5. ill.

1940

Western Dly Press 6 Dec. 5/3: Charged [...] with being drunk [...] O’Brien (55) promised to catch a ’bus to get out although he was feeling very ‘gammy’.