"civvy" meaning in English

See civvy in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈsɪvi/ Forms: civvies [plural], civie [alternative], civvie [alternative]
Rhymes: -ɪvi Etymology: Shortening of civilian + -y. Etymology templates: {{suf|en||y}} + -y Head templates: {{en-noun}} civvy (plural civvies)
  1. (informal) A civilian; someone who is not in the military. Tags: informal
    Sense id: en-civvy-en-noun-RCS1Sks9 Categories (other): People Disambiguation of People: 100 0
  2. (prison slang) A manufactured cigarette, as opposed to a rollup. Tags: slang Synonyms: straight, tailor-made
    Sense id: en-civvy-en-noun-te1gCHJv Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms suffixed with -y, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Smoking Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 26 74 Disambiguation of English terms suffixed with -y: 23 77 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 14 86 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 9 91 Disambiguation of Smoking: 33 67
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Derived forms: civvy street Related terms: civvy cat

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "civvy street"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "",
        "3": "y"
      },
      "expansion": "+ -y",
      "name": "suf"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Shortening of civilian + -y.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "civvies",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "civie",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "civvie",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "civvy (plural civvies)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "civvy cat"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "100 0",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "People",
          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A civilian; someone who is not in the military."
      ],
      "id": "en-civvy-en-noun-RCS1Sks9",
      "links": [
        [
          "civilian",
          "civilian"
        ],
        [
          "military",
          "military"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) A civilian; someone who is not in the military."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "26 74",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "23 77",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms suffixed with -y",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "14 86",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "9 91",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "33 67",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Smoking",
          "orig": "en:Smoking",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              47,
              54
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2012, John Hoskison, INSIDE (One Man's Experience of Prison):",
          "text": "I reached across and offered him the packet of civvies.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A manufactured cigarette, as opposed to a rollup."
      ],
      "id": "en-civvy-en-noun-te1gCHJv",
      "links": [
        [
          "prison",
          "prison"
        ],
        [
          "manufactured",
          "manufactured"
        ],
        [
          "cigarette",
          "cigarette"
        ],
        [
          "rollup",
          "rollup"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(prison slang) A manufactured cigarette, as opposed to a rollup."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "straight"
        },
        {
          "word": "tailor-made"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈsɪvi/"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɪvi"
    }
  ],
  "word": "civvy"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms suffixed with -y",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Rhymes:English/ɪvi",
    "Rhymes:English/ɪvi/2 syllables",
    "en:People",
    "en:Smoking"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "civvy street"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "",
        "3": "y"
      },
      "expansion": "+ -y",
      "name": "suf"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Shortening of civilian + -y.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "civvies",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "civie",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "civvie",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "civvy (plural civvies)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "civvy cat"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English informal terms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A civilian; someone who is not in the military."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "civilian",
          "civilian"
        ],
        [
          "military",
          "military"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) A civilian; someone who is not in the military."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English prison slang",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              47,
              54
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2012, John Hoskison, INSIDE (One Man's Experience of Prison):",
          "text": "I reached across and offered him the packet of civvies.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A manufactured cigarette, as opposed to a rollup."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "prison",
          "prison"
        ],
        [
          "manufactured",
          "manufactured"
        ],
        [
          "cigarette",
          "cigarette"
        ],
        [
          "rollup",
          "rollup"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(prison slang) A manufactured cigarette, as opposed to a rollup."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "straight"
        },
        {
          "word": "tailor-made"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈsɪvi/"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɪvi"
    }
  ],
  "word": "civvy"
}

Download raw JSONL data for civvy meaning in English (1.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.