Definition

1. Adjective (British informal):

   • Faulty, not working properly, or weak: Used to describe something that is unreliable, broken, or in poor condition, often regarding health or mechanical function.

2. Noun:

   • A false shirt front: A man's detachable, usually starched, insert worn to simulate the front of a shirt, often under a waistcoat or jacket.
   • A small auxiliary seat: A small third seat, often folding or cramped, in the back of an old-fashioned two-seater vehicle, such as a carriage or early automobile.

Examples of Usage

• Adjective:

  • The car's brakes have been a bit dicky lately.
  • He's been off work with a dicky stomach.

• Noun (Shirt Front):

  • The formal suit required a starched dicky.
  • He wore a dicky under his waistcoat to save on laundry.

• Noun (Seat):

  • The children had to squeeze into the dicky at the back of the vintage car.

Advanced Usage

• "Dicky heart" / "Dicky ticker" (idiomatic, informal): Refers to a weak or unreliable heart.
  • After the scare, the doctor warned him about his dicky ticker.

Variants and Related Words

• Dickey (noun): An alternative spelling for the noun forms (shirt front, seat).
• Dickey bird (noun, chiefly British, informal or childish): A small bird. Often used in phrases like "not a dicky bird" meaning "not a word" or "no sound at all."
  • I haven't heard a dicky bird from him since he left.

Synonyms

• Adjective: Faulty, unreliable, unsound, dodgy (informal), wonky (informal).
• Noun (Shirt Front): False front, bosom (archaic).
• Noun (Seat): Rumble seat (US), jump seat.

Related Phrases

• Not say/hear a dicky bird (idiom, British informal): To say/hear nothing at all.
  • He promised to call, but I haven't heard a dicky bird.

Notes on Usage

• The adjective form is primarily British and Australian informal.
• The noun sense of a shirt front is now largely historical or related to period costume.
• The noun sense of a seat is also historical, associated with early 20th-century vehicles.

Adjective

1. (British informal) faulty
   • I've got this dicky heart- John le Carre

Noun

1. a man's detachable insert (usually starched) to simulate the front of a shirt
2. a small third seat in the back of an old-fashioned two-seater