Definitions

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

  • noun A British soldier.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To enforce the tommy or truck system on; oppress or defraud by the tommy system.
  • noun [capitalized] Short for Tommy Atkins,' a nickname for the British private soldier.
  • noun Originally, a penny roll; hence, bread; provisions; especially, goods given to a workman in lieu of wages.
  • noun A tommy-shop.
  • noun The system of paying workmen in goods in place of money; the truck system.
  • noun A simple fellow.
  • noun A tom-cat.
  • noun A small round lever used to tighten round-headed screw-bolts that are perforated for this purpose.
  • noun The puffin or sea-parrot, Fratercula arctica. See cut under puffin.
  • noun Hence— A species of soft solder used in the jewelers' trade.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Slang,Eng. Bread, -- generally a penny roll; the supply of food carried by workmen as their daily allowance.
  • noun Slang, Eng. A truck, or barter; the exchange of labor for goods, not money.
  • noun colloq. Same as Tommy Atkins; -- a shortened form.

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

  • noun UK, slang, obsolete bread, generally a penny roll; the supply of food carried by workmen as their daily allowance
  • noun UK, slang, obsolete A truck, or barter; the exchange of labour for goods instead of money.

Etymologies

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

[Short for Tommy Atkins, from Thomas Atkins, a name often used on sample forms.]

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Examples

  • First thing that comes to mind Who or what comes to mind when i say "tommy"? the only thing i can think of when i hear the word tommy is the song by brand new called

    Answerbag: Latest Questions in Question Categories 2009

  • i notice jackass tommy is here. tommy, do you support american flag boxers and briefs?

    Think Progress » Sen. Bill Frist on Gay Marriage and Flag Burning, America’s Most Pressing Priorities 2006

  • I also believe the boarding house was necessary for 3 reasons: 1) it gives him a chance to get to know us a bit as a race 2) tommy is the conduit how else would he have learned about the scientist and gotten to him without tommys help ..

    KAMN Show #24: The Day The Earth Stood Still : The Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas 2006

  • The idea of it being frozen up, and icebergs, and all that kind of tommy-rot is simply the same kind of propaganda that was used against the building of the C.P.R. in western Canada.

    Hudson Bay Railway and Immigration 1926

  • I am sorry, but A.B. & Co, haven't any shekels for that kind of tommy-rot.

    Peter: a novel of which he is not the hero Francis Hopkinson Smith 1876

  • A French Dragoon Captain insisted there was cream in the soup, and a German Lancer protested that cooking was never simple because he had never managed to cook anything other than a boiled egg and even then it came out hard as a Cuirasseur's breastplate, and a Fusilier Captain insisted he had seen men boil eggs by whirling them round and round in a cloth sling, taking forever, and Harold Price insisted on giving the recipe for a 'tommy', the British Army pancake, which consisted of nothing but flour and water, but still took Price two minutes to describe.

    Sharpe's Enemy Cornwell, Bernard 1984

  • "tommy" (one of the kittens) or spiderman and they get a giggle.

    Sleeping Mommy 2008

  • Cleopanther: "As I understand it, the rules of free trade say that the companies with the best inventory relevant to ..." tommy: "TAC, you're probably right.

    GMSV 2008

  • If sonic wanted the extra hour all they had to do was contribute to tommy boy's campaign.

    Sonic's Extra Hour Denied By Aurora City Council 2009

  • Anonymous said ... yeah, cuz kmitch isn't just writing what tommy boy asks.

    City of Aurora Approves Exit Strategy for 37 Employees 2009

  • It extends to the humble “jackie p” (jacket potato) with a squirt of “tommy k” (tomato ketchup) on top – a money-saving meal when everything is so “spenny” (expensive) – and even the simple affirmative “hundy p” (one hundred per cent).

    From the ‘panny d’ to a ‘jackie p’, is hun-speak leaving you behind? Madeline Sherratt 2024

Comments

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  • Song by The Who.

    February 9, 2008

  • "Tommy's Gone to Hilo" is an old sea shanty.

    February 10, 2008