/ˈbɪli/
OriginOf 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”).
- A fellow, companion, comrade, mate; partner, brother.
- GeordieA good friend.
“Fareweel, my rhyme-compoſing billie! / Your native ſoil was right ill-willie; / But may ye flouriſh like a lily, / Now bonilie! / I'll toaſt ye in my hindmoſt gillie, / Tho' owre the Sea!”
- 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.”
“In fact, distinguishing between billies and nannies isn't necessarily a sure thing.”
“It isn't just billies that enter the bleak season with rut-depleted fat reserves, but rams, bull elk, buck deer, and others.”
- UK, obsolete, slangA silk handkerchief.
“All fighting coves you too must know, / Ben Caunt as well as Bendigo, / And to each mill be sure to go, / […] And you must sport a blue billy, / Or a yellow wipe […]”
- A highwayman's club, billy club.
- A slubbing or roving machine.
“[…]at the time there existed in Dublin and its immediate neighbourhood, “forty-five manufacturers, having twenty-two billies, giving employment to 2885 work people, on whom depended for support 7386 i”
“On the second floor there were 2 billies, 1 carding and 1 scribbling machine.”
- Australia, New-ZealandA 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.”
“We had been absent from civilisation, so long, that our tin billies, the only boiling utensils we had, got completely worn or burnt out at the bottoms, and as the boilings for glue and oil must still ”
“Oh there once was a swagman camped in the billabong,
Under the shade of a coolibah tree,
And he sang as he looked at the old billy boiling,
'Who'll come a'waltzing Matilda, with me.'”
- Australia, slangA bong for smoking marijuana.
- slangA condom.
- A diminutive of the male given name William.
““By the way,” Jessamy went on, “what’s your other name? You never told me.” “Stubbs,” said Billy, “William Stubbs!”.”
“Then there’s Billy Long, a former auctioneer and Republican congressman who Trump nominated and was confirmed less than two months ago to head the Internal Revenue Service, with “little background in ”
- USThe B-25 twin-engine bomber aircraft used during World War Two, commonly called the "B-25 Mitchell" in honor of U.S. Army General William "Billy" Mitchell.
“Just then a squadron of "Billys" -- twin-engined B-25 Mitchell land-based bombers -- flew overhead ….”
Formsbillies(plural) · Billie(alternative)