Definition of "dicky"

dicky¹

/ˈdɪki/

noun
plural dickies
1. (colloquial) A louse.
2. (Cockney rhyming slang) Dicky dirt = a shirt, meaning a shirt with a collar.
3. A detachable shirt front, collar or bib.
4. (slang, dated) A hat, especially (in the US) a stiff hat or derby, and (in the UK) a straw hat.
5. (dated) A seat behind a carriage or early motor car, for a servant.
  Quotations
  ...and she was just in time to see Mr. Boyne Sillery hand her aunt into a carriage, jump in himself, when it drove off with a rapidity which scarcely allowed her to observe that a large imperial was on the top, and her aunt's servant, with a huge bandbox, on the dickey.
  1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], pages 134–135
6. (dated) A seat in a carriage, for the driver.
7. (South Asia) The luggage storage compartment of a sedan/saloon style car.
8. (historical) A leather apron for a gig, etc.
9. A small bird; a dicky-bird.
10. (idiomatic, UK, in negative constructions) An insignificant sound or thing; dicky-bird.
  Quotations
  Oh, she landed at Heathrow all right, like you said, but since then your Miss Ranelagh seems to have vanished as effectively as my overdue promotion. Not used her credit card, her Internet account, her mobile phone. Nothing. Not a dicky.
  2013, Michael Dobbs, A Ghost at the Door
11. (UK, military slang) A pilot.
12. (UK, dialect) A hedge sparrow.
13. (UK, dialect) A donkey.
  Quotations
  I've heard grandfather say that when Mr. Priest was at his best there was scores o' young gents as used to come to school as day-boys, 'cause there was no room for 'em to board; and they used to come on dickies […]
  1896, Augustus Jessopp, Random Roaming, and Other Papers, page 181
14. A haddock.
adjective
comparative dickier, superlative dickiest
1. (colloquial) doubtful, troublesome; in poor condition
  Quotations
  Ribald boys stuck the red-covered books of domestic household expenditure which they carried into their breasts, and swaggered by with heads erect; others openly expressed their opinion that it was “all dicky” with him; […]
  1867, Edmund Yates, Broken to Harness: A Story of English Domestic Life, page 311

dicky²

/ˈdɪki/

adjective
comparative dickier, superlative dickiest
1. (informal, vulgar) like a dick, foolish or obnoxious