Meaning

9 senses

  1. A fellow, companion, comrade, mate; partner, brother.

  2. (Geordie)A good friend.

  3. A billy goat.

    1970 August, Valerius Geist, Mountain Goat Mysteries, Field & Stream, page 62, Then, during three days, I was amazed to see nannies with kids attack and chase off large billies.

    male goat

  4. A highwayman's club, billy club.

  5. A slubbing or roving machine.

  6. (Australia, New Zealand)A tin with a swing handle used to boil tea over an open fire; a billycan; a billypot.

    Let's get the billy and cook some beans.

  7. (Australia, slang)A bong for smoking marijuana.

  8. (slang)A condom.

  9. (UK, obsolete, slang)A silk handkerchief.

Examples

123 sentences

  1. How many billy goats do you have?

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · B2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  2. Billy is very tall for his age.

    Білі дуже високий для свого віку. — deniko

    ruБилли очень высокий для своего возраста. — marafon

    deBilly ist sehr groß für sein Alter. — Alois

    Swift · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · B1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  3. Billy often hits his face against windows.

    Scott · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · B1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  4. Where is the evidence, Billy? We need the evidence!

    Де пруфи, Біллі? Нам потрібні пруфи! — Teashrock

    ruГде пруфы, Билли? Нам нужны пруфы! — Teashrock

    Teashrock · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · A2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  5. Billy, get lost! I don't want to see you here again.

    nthkmf · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · B1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Origin

Of obscure origin. Perhaps a variant of bully (“companion, mate, comrade”). Compare Scots

Of obscure origin. Perhaps a variant of bully (“companion, mate, comrade”). Compare Scots billie (“a comrade; companion”). Compare also Middle Low German billig (“equitable, reasonable, lawful, fitting, according to natural law, just”).

Uncertain, but probably extracted from Scots billypot (“a type of cooking pot”), perhaps originally from the name Billy, a diminutive of William.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: billies
Singularbilly
Pluralbillies

regular

Synonyms

7 synonyms
Close in meaning

Word family

12 related words
Derivedbilly boybilly buttonsbillyhoodbilly-ohhillbillysilly-billysilly billyswampbillybillycanbilly cartbillyfulbilly tin

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
billionB2billionairebillowbimonthly

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

billy — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto