skivvy
/ˈskɪvi
/noun (plural skivvies)
1British informal A female domestic servant who performs menial tasks: I found a job as a maid-of-all-work, a skivvy...
- In upper-class households there was often a hierarchy of servants ‘below stairs', ranging from the butler to kitchen skivvies.
- Be realistic: he is never going to tidy up if he has a skivvy to do it for him and give him back his stuff all sorted, clean, tidy and ready to use.
- She said the new laws would protect Pakistani teenagers who were brought over to be little more than skivvies to an unknown husband and his family.
1.1A person doing work that is poorly paid and considered menial: I’m really the office skivvy...
- They want to be treated with respect, not taken for granted as low paid skivvies.
- Are they teachers, managers, social workers or skivvies?
- And the choice of placements totally eclipses the old stigma of office typist or work site skivvy.
2 (also skivvy shirt) US & Australian A lightweight high-necked long-sleeved garment.But Couples doesn't wear a skivvy shirt under his golf tunic to minimize the subcutaneous fat....
- Wear your western shirt open and untucked over a skivvy to draw the eye down and create the illusion of a more sculpted, leaner silhouette.
- The brown skivvy, open and zipped up, may be worn with dress order 4A DCPU barracks dress and 4B DPCU field dress.
2.1A T-shirt or short-sleeved vest.I had also found a more suitable top, a black body hugging woollen skivvy.
3 (skivvies) North American trademark Underwear consisting of a vest and underpants.Undies, underwear, or skivvies were all deemed acceptable....
- Just go to this link and find a short story that sends the shivers down to your skivvies.
- One had pulled on jeans, one was in skivvy shorts, and one responded nude.
Originally a US navy term
verb (skivvies, skivvying, skivvied) [no object] British informal
Do menial household tasks; work as a skivvy: I was skivvying for that Brixton family...
- Antonin was taken in by a busy cook who offered him bed and board in exchange for skivvying.
- Burke's opportunity to ditch the skivvying came when his ailing grandfather divided up some inheritance money before passing away.
- Thank you, thank you for letting us come here and skivvy for you 12 hours a day for less than a fiver an hour.
Origin
Early 20th century: of unknown origin.