tommy
see also: Tommy
Pronunciation
  • (America) IPA: /ˈtɑmi/
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈtɒmi/
Noun

tommy

  1. (UK, slang, obsolete) bread, generally a penny roll; the supply of food carried by workmen as their daily allowance
  2. (UK, slang, obsolete) A truck, or barter; the exchange of labour for goods instead of money.
Verb

tommy (tommies, present participle tommying; past and past participle tommied)

  1. (UK, slang, obsolete, transitive) To pay (employees) according to the truck system, with goods instead of money.

Tommy
Pronunciation
  • (America) IPA: /ˈtɑmi/
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈtɒmi/
Proper noun
  1. A male given name.
  2. (uncommon relative to the male given name) A female given name.
Noun

tommy (plural Tommies)

  1. (colloquial) Tommy Atkins; a typical private in the British army; a British soldier.
    • 1892, Rudyard Kipling, "Tommy"
      Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?"
      But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll
    • 1929, D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover, Chapter 15:
      And every night now he played pontoon, that game of the Tommies, with Mrs Bolton, gambling with sixpences.
    • 1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York 2007, page 129:
      He liked the Germans better than he did the French; but for all that, if he went down the back streets of a night, it was with three or four British Tommies, in case the Jerries weren't as friendly as they made out.
  2. (by extension) Any common soldier; a member of the rank and file.
Synonyms


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