▪ I. dunny, a.1
(ˈdʌnɪ)
[f. dun a. + -y.]
Somewhat dun or dusky brown.
| a 1529 Skelton El. Rummyng 400 I were skynnes of conny, That causeth I loke so donny. 1610 W. Folkingham Art of Survey i. x. 28 Lime made of a dunny gray stone. 1715 Lancaster 16 Jan. in Ballard MSS. xxi. 59 Paper of the same Dunny Colour. 1819 T. Thompson in Coll. Songs, Comic and Satirical (1827) 10 Tyneside seem'd clad wiv bonny ha's An furnaces sae dunny. 1951 J. Frame Lagoon 38 The house with..its dunny roses on the trellis-work. |
▪ II. ˈdunny, a.2 (n.1) dial.
[possibly f. dun v.2; and if so, meaning originally ‘having a ringing or resonance in the ears’; cf. also dunch a.]
A. adj. Dull of hearing, deaf; dull of apprehension, stupid.
| 1708 Kersey, Dunny, somewhat deaf, deafish. 1775 Mrs. Delany Life & Corr. Ser. ii. II. 97 My eyesight grew dimmer, my ears more dunny. a 1791 Grose Olio (1796) 105 What the devil are you dunny? won't you give me no answer? 1826 Scott Woodst. iii, My old Dame Joan is something dunny. 1882–8 [In Dialect Glossaries of Berkshire, Worcestersh., etc.]. |
† B. n. A stupid fellow; a dunce. Obs.
| 1709 Brit. Apollo II. No. 29. 3/2 Should a School-boy do so, he'd be whip'd for a Dunny. |
Hence ˈdunnily, ˈdunniness.
| 1731 Bailey, Dunnily, deafishly. Dunniness, deafishness. |
▪ III. dunny, n.2
(ˈdʌnɪ)
Also danna, dunikin, dunnakin, dunnee, dunniken, dunnyken.
[Origin unknown, but cf. dung n. and ken n.2]
1. dial. and slang. An earth closet, (outside) privy (see also quot. 1859). Also attrib. (Freq. in Austral. and N.Z. slang.)
| a 1790 H. T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) 26 Dunnakin, a necessary. 1812 J. H. Vaux Flash Dict. 184 Knapping a jacob from a danna-drag. This is a curious species of robbery..; it signifies taking away the short ladder from a nightman's cart, while the men are gone into a house, the privy of which they are employed emptying, in order to effect an ascent. 1846 Swell's Night Guide 57 ‘Where's the plant, cully?’..‘Fenced, in a dunniken.’..‘What? Fenced in a crapping ken?’ 1859 Hotten Dict. Slang 29 Danna, excrement. Danna drag, a nightman's or dustman's cart. Ibid. 35 Dunny-ken, a watercloset. 1943 Horizon VIII. 156 The crazy dunikins, outside w.c.s listing away from the prevailing wind. 1947 [see bugger v. 2 b]. 1952 J. Baxter in Chapman & Bennett Anthol. N.Z. Verse (1956) 258 Cigarette stink from a hole in the rushes Dark as a dunny. 1960 N. Hilliard Maori Girl I. iii. 19 She delighted in giving cheek to the boys and taking refuge in the girls' dunny. 1962 C. Rohan Delinquents 137 How is the dunny?.. Does it have a chain? 1965 G. McInnes Road to Gundagai iii. 38 The lavatory, or the ‘dunny’ as Dad used to call it. 1970 Private Eye 16 Jan. 16 It seems a bit crook for old bazza to spend the night in the dunnee! |
2. Sc. [Perh. a different word.] An underground passage or cellar, common in old tenement buildings.
| 1918 N. Munro Jaunty Jock ii. 24 Flat on flat it rose for fourteen stories, poverty in its dunnies (as they called its cellars), poverty in its attics. 1922 J. Buchan Huntingtower vii. 152 Sleepin' in coal-rees and dunnies and dodgin' the polis. 1947 Forward 4 Jan. 3 Broken-down sewage system which periodically overflows into the dunnies and back-courts. |