Etymology An alteration of catty (“(unit of) weight used in China, equivalent to 1⅓ pounds avoirdupois (about 0.605 kilograms)”), borrowed from Malay kati (“weight used in China, Indonesia, and Japan”), from Tamil கட்டி (kaṭṭi, “measure of weight; clod, lump”), from கட்டு (kaṭṭu, “to coagulate, congeal, or consolidate (into a concretion); to harden”).
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Also A small box or tin (can) with a lid for holding dried tea leaves used to brew tea.
The Carneses imported lacquer teapoys in sets. These sets could be easily stacked in a corner of the drawing room and brought out at teatime to hold a teacup, a set, or a caddy. The Carneses purchased lacquered teapoys sets for four dollars in China and probably sold them for twice that amount in America.2019, Nancy E. Davis, “Afong Moy Presents Chinese Objects for the Home”, in The Chinese Lady: Afong Moy in Early America, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, part II (The Show), page 107:
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Broadly A (usually small) box, chest, or tin with a lid, and often with partitions, used to keep things in.
A sauce caddy brought with the tacos offers a choice of salsa cruda, a thin puree of tomatillos, and an emulsion of red chilies.1990, Washingtonian, volume 25, Washington, D.C.: Washington Magazine, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 121:
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Broadly A small lidded bin for food waste.
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Broadly A movable tray or other mechanism for holding (sometimes within a piece of equipment or machinery), securing, and transporting a removable component.
Place the disc in the DVD caddy.
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Broadly A lightweight wheeled cart; specifically, one attached to a bicycle as a conveyance for a child, or pulled by hand and used to transport groceries away from a shop.
Golf, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports Chiefly followed by for: alternative spelling of caddie (“to serve as a caddy (noun sense) for a golfer”)
I was honored to caddy for Tiger Woods at a charity golf game.
We took turns caddying, one caddying, two playing. We went out across the river to the teeing ground of the first hole.1897 (date written), Paul T. B. Ward, quotee, “19th Hole: The Readers Take Over”, in Sports Illustrated, volume 19, number 4, Chicago, Ill.: Time Inc., published 22 July 1963, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 60:
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The next day the thirty-two qualifying players were paired off into sixteen sets of opponents. Charlotte was matched against a girl from California. After the first few minutes, the result was never in doubt. "Take it easy, miss," said the highly gratified Mr. Ogilvie, who was caddying for Charlotte. "You hold her in the hollow of your hand."1917 July, George Weston, chapter VI, in The Apple-tree Girl: The Story of Little Miss Moses, who Led Herself into the Promised Land, Philadelphia, Pa.; London: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, published 1918, →OCLC, page 100:
The scheme had been, if I remember, that after lunch I should go off and caddy for Honoria on a shopping tour down Regent Street; but when she got up and started collecting me and the rest of her things, Aunt Agatha stopped her.1923 May 17, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “Introducing Claude and Eustace”, in The Inimitable Jeeves, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1979, →ISBN, page 63:
She pulled up in a shiny black Caddy at six o'clock.
All those ones live in those great big piecrust mock-Two-door houses with His and Hers Caddies parked out by the hydrangea bushes.1971, John Updike, Rabbit Redux:
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He's driving a ten-year old^([sic]) lime-green Caddy with a trunk full of golf clubs and one suitcase. We got a license number.2000, John Sandford [pseudonym; John Roswell Camp], Easy Prey, page 126:
So Dave backed his car in beside the Caddy, his eyes on the side door of the bar, no one having come out for a while.2003, Dennis Lehane, Mystic River: