tommy

name

1. A diminutive of the male given name Thomas.

   “The Tory hard right is in the ascendancy, and a fascist street movement – led by convicted fraudster Tommy Robinson – represents a growing threat.”

2. A diminutive of the female given name Thomasina.

noun

1. (abbreviation, alt-of, colloquial, ellipsis)Ellipsis of Tommy Atkins, a typical private in the British army; a British soldier.

   “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”

   “And every night now he played pontoon, that game of the Tommies, with Mrs Bolton, gambling with sixpences.”

   “Meanwhile the Tommies had discovered several large tins of ham in the captured lorry. 'That,' said the big Nazi, 'is for our tea.' 'No,' said a Tommy sergeant-major. 'That's for our tea. For you, chummy, we've kept a nice bit of bull.'”

   “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. (broadly, colloquial)Ellipsis of Tommy Atkins, a typical private in the British army; a British soldier.

   “May was in New Zealand when war broke out, and immediately left for France, where she worked in a military hospital in a converted high school in Marseilles. Writing home, she said that the French officers were said to be 'fussy' so she was glad to be nursing the Tommies (meaning French rank and file): 'they are brave and good, and patient, and such grateful patients. They are helpful to each other, and take such an interest in their fellow sufferers.'”

3. (obsolete, rare)A lesbian.

   “Here, here, here again! Coquettes, flirts, harlots, adultereſſes, tulips, pinks, roſes, lilies, violets, wormwood, fennel, and hemlock! Unnatural, unnatural, unnatural! Tommies, Tommies, Tommies! Women kiſſing women; doating, languiſhing, dying, pining, crying, caterwauling, for each other! Ha, ha, ha! O the madneſs of this age!”

4. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis)Ellipsis of tommy boy.
5. (UK, countable, slang, uncountable)A British infantryman, especially one from World War I. Ellipsis of Tommy Atkins.
6. (UK, countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable)Bread or breadlike foodstuff, generally a penny roll.
7. (UK, countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable)The supply of food carried by workmen as their daily allowance.
8. (UK, countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable)A truck, or barter; the exchange of labour for goods instead of money; the scrip by which such exchange occurs.
9. (countable, uncountable)A tommy bar.
10. (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, slang, uncountable)Short for Tommy gun
11. (countable, dated, slang, uncountable)Tommyrot; nonsense.

    “'Don't talk tommy, Guy!' she exclaimed half wrathfully. 'As if I could possibly put on two left shoes without knowing it, even if I could get them on. […]'”

12. (countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable)Synonym of dicky (“detachable shirt front”).

verb

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