biddy

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɪdi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪdi

Derived from Biddy, diminutive form of Bridget. It became a generic name for an Irish maid (US), and then for an old woman.

biddy (plural biddies)

1. (derogatory) A woman, especially an old woman; especially one regarded as fussy or mean or a gossipy busybody.
   • 1970-1975, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure

     That Mich drag Loretta sent me about 10 pictures of her so I wouldn't think her a "decrepit old lady." But too bad—she looked like someone's biddy aunt.

   • 1978 December 23, Michael Bronski, “Notes and Thoughts by One Gay Man on Pornography and Censorship”, in Gay Community News, volume 6, number 22, page 11:

     After working a 65 hour week, men would spend their whole paycheck in saloons, drink the whole weekend, and ignore the needs of their families. The overwhelming participation of women in the movement was prompted by motives of self preservation […] It is no accident that male historians have chosen to present these women as crazed biddies in an attempt to deny the real reason for their concern.

2. (uncommon) An attractive girl.
4. (archaic, colloquial) An Irish maidservant.
5. (by extension, derogatory) An Irishwoman.
6. A name used in calling a hen or chicken, often as "biddy-biddy-biddy".
   • c. 1601–1602, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, act 3, scene 4, line 115:

     Ay, biddy, come with me.

   • 1915, Thornton W. Burgess, chapter XI, in The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel, Boston: Little, Brown, and Company:

     "Well, we'll see about it by and by," said Farmer Brown's boy. "There's the breakfast bell, and I haven't fed the biddies yet."

7. breasts (when used in the phrase "tig biddies" derived from "big tiddies")
   • 2005 Rejected: You Never Know What You're Gonna Get - Page 29

     It ain't like you ain't never seen these tig ole biddies before.

biddy (plural biddies)

1. (US) Alternative spelling of bitty.
   • 1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books (2014), page 210:

     “Was it in buckets or them little biddy cans?”