Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A billy club.
- n. Australian A metal pot or kettle used in camp cooking.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A comrade; a companion; a brother in arms, trade, and the like; a fellow; a young man.
- n. Stolen metal of any kind.
- n. A small metal bludgeon that may be carried in the pocket; hence, a policeman's club.
- n. A slubbing-machine. See slubber.
- n. A tin can or pail with an arched handle and a detachable lid, used by bushmen in Australia as a kettle.
Wiktionary
- n. A billy club.
- n. A billy goat.
- n. A good friend.
- n. A tin used by bushmen to boil tea, a billypot.
- n. A condom (From the E-Rotic song "Willy, Use A Billy...Boy")
- n. a billycan.
- n. shortened form of silly billy.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A club; esp., a policeman's club. Also called
billy club - n. A slubbing or roving machine.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a short stout club used primarily by policemen
- n. male goat
Etymologies
- Probably short for billypot, from Billy, nickname for William.
Examples
“We were told earlier today that firefighters are cutting what they call billy goat lines.”
“April 30th, 2008 11: 51 am ET hill billy is a lier and a thief. stop her before she steals all your money. vote sensibly. vote Obama 08, 12”
Obama campaign files FEC complaint against pro-Clinton group
“Course in billy's case, he probably ENJOYS exposin 'himself!!”
“They'd left me the plum-duff, which was hanging in its billy from a bough.”
“Don't walk on the cracks in the road Oh that is me being a silly billy (Can I call billy silly? or will that offend?)”
“Called billy bob thornton, who could no longer hide behind One Who Knows from Canada writes: s. truszkowski from toronto, Canada writes: billy wants some space from his acting career as he expresses his musical aspirations so it is a fine and good thing his band is often referred to as billy bob thorton and the boxmasters. that the upcoming album from the boxmasters is called 'modbilly' is also some sort of cosmic coincidence and has nothing to do with using fame garnered in hollywood to push a marketing agenda in the music world. further, that an opening band for willie nelson, and not willie himself, would be subject to a relatively high profile interview suggests questionable judgement by the cbc on the basis of something deeper than mediocre music.”
“It seemed to me that if I could make him angry he would do better, so I knocked off his hat, which was black and hard, of the kind which is called billy-cock.”
“I should, perhaps, explain to English readers that a billy is a tin can, the name for which”
“He was charged with one count of possessing a deadly weapon, described as a billy club, and two counts of possessing assault weapons.”
“Swag is an Australian term for a bedroll, and a billy is a pot or can with a wire handle used to boil water or cook food in.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘billy’.
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•Open List: Songboys
Inspired by gangerh's extremely addictive list songbirds, this is the same type list, but for male names. Same rules apply:
Names of boys in song titles. Not in the lyrics, just in the title...jack, jesse, jakey, john, arthur, nick, donald, bill, billy, gideon, riley, charlie and 95 more...
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Boys Names
List of Boys names
danny, daniel, bobby, robert, chris, christopher, dan, bob, rob, jeff, jeffery, jeffrey and 105 more...
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___ Rae
A friend of mine is changing her surname to Rae. She has a pleasant but unremarkable first name, and no middle name. So let's give her a memorable middle name. Come on Wordies, I know you can do it.
gamma, x, cosmic, sting, billy, more, death, hoo, tanker, norma, rae, sugar and 39 more...
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funny names
funny names
gertrude, vernon, clarence, stanley, edwick, edwick the dead cow, bert, sebastian, yngwie, cliff, gary, barbara and 59 more...
chained_bear "Billy Peddle" by Great Big Sea; "Billy's Bones" by the Pogues Feb 9, 2008
chained_bear Australia and New Zealand. A cylindrical container, usually of tin or enamel ware, with a close-fitting lid and a wire handle, used for making tea and for cooking over fires in the open, and for carrying food or liquid. (OED online)
Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong
Under the shade of a coolibah tree
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled,
"Who'll come a-waltzing matilda with me?"
--A.B. Paterson, "Waltzing Matilda" Feb 6, 2007