Billy (disambiguation)

Apart from the name, an abbreviation for William, the word billy has several applications.

• Various machines and gadgets have been called billies in different crafts and occupations -
  • in America, commonly a policeman's truncheon is known as a billy.
  • At sea, a handy-billy is an arrangement of blocks that can be used to improve the effect of muscle power locally.
  • In Australia, and elsewhere, a billy (sometimes billycan or billy-can) is the sort of tin can in which water may be boiled over a camp fire, as in the song 'Waltzing Matilda':

....And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled

"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me"

• • In Scots and in northern dialects, a billie is a friend, companion or 'mate', as in the opening of Robert Burns's poem Tam O'Shanter:

"When chapman billies leave the street [= when pedlar colleagues leave the street]

And drouthy neebours neebours meet [=and thirsty neighbours meet each other (in the pub)".

• • A billy-boy is an alternative local name for the type of sailing barge more usually called a Humber Keel.
  • A billycock (hat) is an obsolete term for a 'bowler hat' (US: 'derby (hat)'. It has connotations of the hat being worn in an arrogant, conceited or jaunty manner. 'Gentlemen' wore bowlers; billycocks were worn by the less well-off.
  • A billy goat, or simply billy, is the commonest name for a male goat, although many farmers prefer the more formal buck, or more traditional her-goat. (The female, likewise, is a nannygoat, or, to specialists, a she-goat or doe. The young are kids.) Billy-goat is derived by OED from the name, and is to be found in nursery contexts, like the story The Billy Goats Gruff.

You may also want to see Bill (name) or even Bill (disambiguation).