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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

tommy.

A British infantryman, especially one from World War I. Ellipsis of Tommy Atkins.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈtɑmi/General-American/ˈtɒmi/Received-Pronunciation
  1. A British infantryman, especially one from World War I. Ellipsis of Tommy Atkins.

    UK · countable · slang · uncountable
  2. Bread or breadlike foodstuff, generally a penny roll.

    UK · countable · obsolete · slang · uncountable
  3. The supply of food carried by workmen as their daily allowance.

    UK · countable · obsolete · slang · uncountable
  4. A truck, or barter; the exchange of labour for goods instead of money; the scrip by which such exchange occurs.

    UK · countable · obsolete · slang · uncountable
  5. A tommy bar.

    countable · uncountable
  6. Short for Tommy gun

    abbreviation · alt-of · countable · slang · uncountable
  7. Tommyrot; nonsense.

    countable · dated · slang · uncountable
  8. Synonym of dicky (“detachable shirt front”).

    countable · obsolete · slang · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Generally agreed to have come from appellativization of Tommy in most senses, but the historical details are apparently largely unknown, including whether such an evolution happened several times (with one sense being independent of another).

verb/ˈtɑmi/General-American/ˈtɒmi/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To pay (employees) according to the truck system, with goods instead of money.

    UK · obsolete · slang · transitive
Where this word comes from

Generally agreed to have come from appellativization of Tommy in most senses, but the historical details are apparently largely unknown, including whether such an evolution happened several times (with one sense being independent of another).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.