Etymology From Dicky, pet form of Richard. * In cover/apron senses: perhaps from English dialect dick (“leather apron”) + -y; perhaps from Dutch dek (“a cover”).
Dated, Slang A hat, especially (in the US) a stiff hat or derby, and (in the UK) a straw hat.
5
Dated A seat behind a carriage or early motor car, for a servant.
...and she was just in time to see Mr. Boyne Sillery hand her aunt into a carriage, jump in himself, when it drove off with a rapidity which scarcely allowed her to observe that a large imperial was on the top, and her aunt's servant, with a huge bandbox, on the dickey.1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 134–135:
South Asia The luggage storage compartment of a sedan/saloon style car.
Can you open the dicky for me?
Back and forth, back and forth, go our mothers on their secret missions, carrying their sinister freight in the dicky of our Morris Minor.1988, Bapsi Sidhwa, Ice-Candy Man, Daunt Books (2016), page 184:
UK, Idiomatic, In negative constructions An insignificant sound or thing; dicky-bird.
Oh, she landed at Heathrow all right, like you said, but since then your Miss Ranelagh seems to have vanished as effectively as my overdue promotion. Not used her credit card, her Internet account, her mobile phone. Nothing. Not a dicky.2013, Michael Dobbs, A Ghost at the Door:
I've heard grandfather say that when Mr. Priest was at his best there was scores o' young gents as used to come to school as day-boys, 'cause there was no room for 'em to board; and they used to come on dickies […]1896, Augustus Jessopp, Random Roaming, and Other Papers, page 181:
Etymology Unknown. Perhaps a use of Dicky, hypocoristic form of Dick, perhaps playing on its resemblance to tricky, sticky, or other similar-sounding words. Alternatively, perhaps an alteration of dickens.
1
Colloquial In bad condition; weak, faulty, unreliable, doubtful, troublesome.
He had a dicky heart.
I've got a dicky tummy.
1 more example
Ribald boys stuck the red-covered books of domestic household expenditure which they carried into their breasts, and swaggered by with heads erect; others openly expressed their opinion that it was “all dicky” with him; […]1867, Edmund Yates, Broken to Harness: A Story of English Domestic Life, page 311:
dicky
noun
Etymology From dick + -y (diminutive suffix), apparently originally punningly after Etymology 1.