Log in or Sign up
dick love

dick

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Vulgar A penis.
  • noun Vulgar A person, especially a man, regarded as mean or contemptible.
  • noun Chiefly British A fellow; a guy.
  • transitive verb To have sexual intercourse with. Used of a man.
  • transitive verb To treat (someone) meanly or unfairly; exploit or cheat. Often used with over.
  • noun A detective.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete A declaration.
  • noun West Cumbrian, Borrowdale (dialect) ten in Cumbrian sheep counting
  • noun dated, US, slang A detective.
  • noun countable, obsolete A male person.
  • noun countable, UK, US, colloquial, vulgar The penis.
  • noun countable, UK, US, colloquial, vulgar, pejorative A highly contemptible person.
  • noun uncountable, US, Canada, colloquial absolutely nothing.
  • verb slang To waste time, to goof off.
  • verb slang, vulgar, of a man To have sexual intercourse with.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Dick, nickname for Richard.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Shortening and alteration of detective.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

A shortening and alteration of dec(laration).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

A shortening and alteration of de(t)ec(tive).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ultimately from Dick, pet form of the name Richard. The name Dick came to mean 'everyman', from which the word acquired other meanings.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word dick.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • skipvia commented on the word dick

    British slang for "never," from the saying "That happened in the reign of Queen Dick."

    November 4, 2007

  • chained_bear commented on the word dick

    Why have I lived this long without knowing this phrase?!

    November 4, 2007

  • john commented on the word dick

    I hadn't realized WordNet was such a prude; its definition is certainly not the most common usage.

    November 4, 2007

  • skipvia commented on the word dick

    You're speaking about "detective," aren't you, John? :)

    November 4, 2007

  • uselessness commented on the word dick

    According to dictionary.com, the definition you're thinking of is #2. That can't be right, either.

    November 6, 2007

  • bilby commented on the word dick

    "I swear I could not for a second view these people as anything but human. The best way to fashion a young hard dick like myself -- dick being an acronym for 'dedicated infantry combat killer' -- is simple and the effect of racist indoctrination. Take an empty shell off the streets of L.A. or Brooklyn, or maybe from some Podunk town in Tennessee… and these days America isn't in short supply… I was one of those no-child-left-behind products…

    Anyway, you take this empty vessel and you scare the living shit out of him, break him down to nothing, cultivate a brotherhood and camaraderie with those he suffers with, and fill his head with racist nonsense like all Arabs, Iraqis, Afghans are Hajj. Hajj hates you. Hajj wants to hurt your family. Hajj children are the worst because they beg all the time. Just some of the most hurtful and ridiculous propaganda, but you'd be amazed at how effective it's been in fostering my generation of soldiers."

    - 'Jules', quoted in Tariq Ali, 'Operation Enduring Disaster', 16 Nov 2008.

    November 17, 2008

  • Louises commented on the word dick

    "okay," he said. "But don't dick me, Jacob. You know the cause-and-effect reality."

    March 24, 2012