▪ I. biddy1
(ˈbɪdɪ)
[Familiar abbrev. of Bridget.]
1. Used chiefly in U.S. for an Irish maid-servant.
| [1708 Swift (title of poem) To Mrs. Biddy Floyd. 1858 O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf.-t. xii. 363 Poor Bridget, or Biddy, our red-armed maid of all work!] a 1861 T. Winthrop Life in Open Air (1863) 261 Our thousand [sc. soldiers] did the Capitol little harm that a corporal's guard of Biddies with mops and tubs could not repair in a forenoon's campaign. 1902 B. Harte in Harper's Mag. Apr. 733 He's..puttin' up a high-toned house on the hill..with a Chinese cook, and a Biddy. a 1953 E. O'Neill More Stately Mansions (1965) ii. iii. 120 A mother of children, our Irish biddy nurse girl and house servant. |
2. A woman, usu. with derogatory implication (see quots.). slang.
| 1785 Grose Vulg. Tongue, Biddy, or Chick-a-biddy, a chicken, and figuratively a young wench. 1947 Horizon XVI. 205 Few of our chaps have a biddy [sc. Italian girl] up the alley here. 1958 Observer 10 Aug. 11/3 He is already installed as the local delinquent, using his considerable charm on the local biddys. 1960 C. P. Snow Affair xl. 368, I believe she's the bloodiest awful specimen of a party biddy. |
▪ II. biddy2 Obs. exc. dial.
(ˈbɪdɪ)
[Of uncertain origin: it has been variously conjectured to be an instinctive sound used in calling chickens, a form of Gaelic bîdeach ‘very small,’ and the same word as prec. Cf. chickabiddy.]
A chicken, a fowl. Also dial., a louse.
| 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. iii. iv. 128 To. Why how now my bawcock? how dost y{supu} chuck. Mal. Sir. To. I biddy, come with me. 1875 Lanc. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Biddy, a louse. 1881 Isle of Wight Gloss. (E.D.S.), Biddy or Chickabiddy, a chick. 1884 Harper's Mag. May 930/2 When a biddy wished to sit, she was removed at night upon the nest. |
▪ III. biddy3
(ˈbɪdɪ)
= red biddy.
| 1940 Dylan Thomas Portrait of Artist 228 He used to drink a pint of biddy before his breakfast. |