Dictionary

skivvy en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈskɪvi/
• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (dated) A female domestic servant, especially one employed for menial work.
   • And then Somerset looked at the boys′ skivvy, and saw a well set up young woman with a red round face, an angry face just then but underneath the anger a pleasant one. 1974, Simon Raven, Bring Forth the Body: Alms for Oblivion, volume 3, published 2012, page 194:
   • 2002, Krzysztof Miklaszewski, George M. Hyde (translator, editor), Encounters with Tadeusz Kantor, page 143, The common skivvy from the mortuary clings immoveably to the priest′s bed, which is just as immoveably guarded by the grandmother, who drives her off with a chamberpot. The skivvy is the photographer′s widow, trying to take a picture.
   • “[…]Yes, that was Mac′s Restaurant and I was a kitchen skivvy there, but amazingly, a kitchen skivvy who had actually written a poem. Oh it′s all a very long time ago, Theresa, and so much has happened since then.” 2005, Jenny Telfer Chaplin, The Widow of Candleriggs, unnumbered page:
2. (qualifier:Vietnam War, slang) A prostitute.
3. (Australia, New-Zealand, US) A close-fitting, long-sleeved T-shirt with a rolled collar.
   • ‘He looks so good. He shouldn′t be allowed to wear a black skivvy. Doesn′t he have the most amazing muscles?’ 2005, Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big in This?, page 224:
   • The button-down shirts and plain coloured skivvies were replaced by beads, fringed shawls and loose fitting Asian-style tops. 2006, Iain McIntyre, Tomorrow Is Today: Australia in the Psychedelic Era, 1966-1970, page 41:
   • I put my wetsuit and skivvy on a tree to dry, and laid out my other gear on some grass. 1998, Tom Byron, The History of Spearfishing and Scuba Diving in Australia, page 191:
   • Then dark blood squirts from a little hole in Sergeant Gerheim's chest. The red blood blossoms into his white skivvy shirt like a beautiful flower. 1979, Gustav Hasford, The Short-Timers, New York: Bantam Books, published 1980, →ISBN, page 30:

Forms

Deriveds

skivvy house

Relateds

polo-neck

Translations (10)

cs služka (domestic servant) · sv piga (domestic servant) · sv husa (domestic servant) · bg слугиня (domestic servant) · sv hushållerska (domestic servant) · sh слушкиња (domestic servant) · ru прислу́га (domestic servant) · ru служа́нка (domestic servant) · mk слу́гинка (domestic servant) · sh служавка (domestic servant)

skivvy en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˈskɪvi/
• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (intransitive) To perform menial work; to do chores, like a servant.
   • ‘My mother was right. “It’ll take the war for the buggers to realize how important we are,” she used to say, “but as soon as Hitler hangs his clogs up we’ll be back skivvying and scurrying like there’s nothing in our heads.”’ 1985, Caryl Phillips, The Final Passage, London: Faber and Faber, page 174:
   • We went out by turns, or sent out the apprentices who skivvied for us, to fetch in roast pork […] 1930, Owen Lattimore, chapter 1, in High Tartary, Boston: Little, Brown, page 9:
   • He saw no mother but a washerwoman at her skivvying and the dirt-faced children that would be clinging to her skirts. 2001, Jamie O’Neill, At Swim, Two Boys, London: Scribner, Part 2, Chapter 13, p. 361:

Forms