dilly-bagn.
/ˈdɪlɪbaɡ/, U.S. /ˈdɪliˌbæɡ/, Australian English /ˈdɪlibæɡ/ Australia.
a. An Australian native-made bag or basket, plaited of rushes or bark.
ΚΠ
1847 F. W. L. Leichhardt Jrnl. Overland Exped. Austral. iii. 90 In their ‘dillis’ (small baskets) were several roots or tubers.
1847 F. W. L. Leichhardt Jrnl. Overland Exped. Austral. iii. 91 Dillis neatly worked of Koorajone bark.
1885 R. C. Praed Austral. Life 34 I learned too at the camp to plait dilly-bags.
1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer xvii. 210 May-boy came forward dangling a small dilly-bag.
1893 R. C. Praed Outlaw & Lawmaker I. 103 The dilly-bag, which had been plaited by the gins, smelled atrociously.
b. Australian colloquial. Any small bag in which articles are carried.
ΚΠ
1934 Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Dec. 48/1 He had seen young Willie leave the farmhouse carrying the tea and a dilly-bag of cakes.
1937 E. Partridge Dict. Slang 221/1 Dilly-bag, a wallet; a civilian haversack... In C. 20, often used by women for a small shopping-bag or for a general-utility purse-bag.
Derivatives
dillyful n.
ΚΠ
1889 R. C. Praed Romance of Station 75 A fresh dillyful of live crabs.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1896; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1847